Podcasts about Bnei Brak

If we would be able to see what we accomplish by doing mitzvot, we would run after them with such excitement and everything in this world would pale in comparison to them. When the Jewish People were preparing to leave Mitzrayim, they were told to go and gather all the wealth of Egypt. At that time, Moshe Rabbenu chose to go and find the aron of Yosef instead, and for that Chazal applied the pasuk חכם לב יקח מצוות to him. While everyone was becoming billionaires, Moshe went to do one mitzvah and he was called the wisest of all of them for that endeavor. Besides for the fact that his reward was eternal while their wealth would only last here in this world, seven days later at Yam Suf, the entire nation was in jeopardy of being killed out by the Mitzrim . When the Sea saw the aron of Yosef, it split and the entire nation was saved. Moshe Rabbenu was thus credited with saving the entire Klal Yisrael because of his pursuit of that one mitzvah. Why did the Sea split for Yosef? Because years before when he was being tested with the wife of Potifar, he ran away from temptation and so now the water was running away from his aron to save the entire Klal Yisrael . Imagine if during that difficult test Yosef would have known that he was going to be the cause of millions of people to be saved, he would have ran away with ease, it wouldn't have even been a test. However, Hashem does not allow a person to see the wondrous effects of what his deeds are going to accomplish, in order for his free will to remain balanced. But we must know that if we did have the eyes to see what was happening when we do mitzvot, we would be so excited to perform every single one of them. I read a story about a man who asked the gabai in his shul to reserve Aliyat Maftir and chazan for Mussaf on one of the upcoming Shabbatot , since that was the week of his mother's yahrtzeit . This man was a very organized person and always made sure to plan things a long time in advance. He was a long time member of that shul and one of its supporters and the gabai told him both of those honors were open and he made a note to reserve them for him. When that Shabbat arrived, the man came into shul filled with anticipation, but there he noticed that a stranger had joined the minyan that day and was in deep conversation with the gabai . The man was curious to hear what the debate was about and, to his shock, he found out that this stranger had asked for Maftir and chazan for Mussaf because he also had a yahrtzeit . Here he was a long time member and supporter of the shul and he asked for these from weeks in advance and now some stranger just strolls in out of the blue and thinks he can take those honors? But then, a small voice whispered inside of him, maybe he should give in? Who knows what merits help the neshama the most. Maybe giving up what was his for someone else would accomplish even more. And so, with great strength, he went over to the gabai and told him to give those honors to the other man. He would take a different aliyah and be chazan for Shacharit on the actual yahrtzeit instead. The gabai said, " Chas v'shalom , there is a system here, these are yours." The man reassured the gabai that he was actually happy to do this. And when the gabai saw he was serious, he went over and gave them to the other man. Rabbi Aharon Toisig, a prominent Rav from Bnei Brak, was present in the shul when this episode took place and he related what happened the next day. The congregant came into shul and said his mother came to him in a dream and said to him, "My son, I was given special permission to descend to this world to thank you. The elevation that I experienced when you gave up the Maftir and Mussaf was greater than any other I had ever experienced. I remember well the elevation I merited in past years when you got Aliyat Maftir and was chazan for Mussaf , but those did not come close to what I merited this year when you mustered up the fortitude to give up the honors that were rightfully yours for the sake of peace and to help someone else." This is just one small example of the great effects of our deeds. The harder they are to perform, the greater they become. We should always run to do mitzvot with the utmost excitement.

Welcome to our daily bitachon Haggadah Shel Pesach series . We're up to the piece of Maaseh , which lists many great Tanaim , Rebbe Eliezer , Rebbe Yehoshua , Rebbe Elazar ben Azariah Rebbe Akiva and Rebbe Tarfon who were all together in Bnei Brak one Pesach , and spent the whole night talking about Yetziyat Mitzrayim. Rebbe Yechiel Michel Epstein , better known as the Aruch HaShulchan, writes in his commentary on the Haggadah , that he's bothered by a few questions. Firstly,Rebbe Eliezer lived in a town called Lod , Rebbe Yehoshua lived in a town called Peki'in and Rebbe Akiva lived in Bnei Brak , as the Gemara in Sanhedrin 32a tells us. ( Rebbe Eliezer and Rebbe Yehoshua were teachers of Rebbe Akiva .) Why were they all by Rabbi Akiva for the holiday? Especially Rebbe Eliezer , as he is the one that holds (see Sukkah 27b), that one is supposed to stay home for the holiday. So why was he leaving his home on Pesach to go to his student, Rebbe Akiva ? He answers based on a Gemara in Mesechet Makkot 25b, that Raban Gamliel , Rebbe Elazar ben Azariah , Rebbe Yehoshua and Rebbe Akiva were all on the road, and heard a tremendous ruckus of partying coming from Rome. They started to cry, and Rabbi Akiva started to laugh. Rabbi Akiva asked, " Why are you crying ?" And they said, "They're sitting in serenity and confidence. They destroyed the Bet HaMikdash, and here we are. " They asked why he was laughing, and he said, "That's why I'm laughing. If this is what happens to those that go against God's will, imagine what's going to happen to those that fulfill God's will!" And he explains that Rabbi Akiva was telling them an important principle, that after someone goes through Midat HaDin , after there's justice on someone, the chesed that comes out is tremendous. Rabbi Akiva was trying to tell them was that if the Babylonians, who had no judgment on them, and thus no purification on them, merited so much kindness from Hashem , because Hashem's kindness is never-ending, imagine how much we, who went through (and are going through) this tremendous justice and judgment and purification by God, are going to be enveloped in God's tremendous kindness. Because of Rabbi Akiva's chizuk , and new way of looking at things, says the Aruch HaShulchan , they felt indebted to him. He strengthened their hope in the Jewish people, at a point in history, after the Chorban when they were suffering through so much. So they all came to his house, in his city (except for Rabban Gamliel , who was the Nasi , and didn't come), to spend the night with Rabbi Akiva, talking about Yetziyat Mitzrayim . Because Yetziyat Mitzrayim is the time that we get clear on the Nitzchiyut , the everlasting state of the Jewish people, that no one could destroy them. Rabbi Akiva was the expert on this, so they spent the night working on this concept of Nitzchiyut Yisrael , the eternal state of the Jewish people . That, he says, is the purpose of the night of Yetziyat Mitzrayim . Because Bechol Dor Vador , Omdim Alenu .. In every generation, they try to destroy us. Therefore, they felt the best way to gain this clarity, in the post-destruction era that they were in, was to go to Rebbe Akiva , who had this understanding. So they went firstly, as a token of appreciation and respect Rabbi Akiva , for what he did for them, and also for the chizuk that they would get from being at his seder . He doesn't say this, but Rabbi Akiva is known as the one who, while they're tearing his skin off, was saying My whole life I've been preparing for this. Rabbi Akiva was was able to go through tremendously challenging situations and stick with the attitude of Kol ma d'avid Rachmana latav , whatever God does is for the good . He was a student of Nachum Ish Gamzu, who said Gamzu L'Tovah , and the Yerushalmi cites a fascinating discussion between between them. Nachum Ish Gamzu, after not taking care of a poor man fast enough, asked God to give him a severe punishment. When Rebbe Akiva saw his Rebbe like that, he said, "Oy li / Woe onto me that I see you like this!" And Nachum told Rabbi Akiva , " Oy li, Woe onto me if I don't see you like this!" Rabbi Akiva said, Are you cursing me? And Nachum Ish Gamzu said, " No, I'm not cursing you." He saw what Rabbi Akiva would go through at the hand of the Romans in the future, and how it would bring him to his greatness. Rabbi Akiva is the quintessential picture of resilience. 24,000 of his students died, and he picked himself up, found five new students, and all the Torah Sh'beAl/all the oral law that we have, came from him. The Aruch Hashulchan says that they spent the whole night on this concept, until their students came and said, our Rabbotenu / Our Rabbis , the time of Kriyat Shema Shel Shachrit has come. Kriyat Shema Shel Shachrit symbolizes the upbeat attitude, as we say, Magen U'Moshiach , God is a shield and a protection, , bechol dor vador , in every generation. Kriyat Shema is our promise from Hashem that we're going to last forever. Shema Yisrael Hashem Elokenu Hashem Echad . Interestingly enough, Rabbotenu , Higiya HaZman Kriyat Shema Shel Shachrit , were the final of Rebbe Akiva , as it said, fortunate is Akiva , that his soul departed, as he was saying, Echad . So this was the place, and this was the night, to get that chizuk from Rabbi Akiva .

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world. Political correspondent Sam Sokol joins host Jessica Steinberg for today's Daily Briefing. As the IDF faces problems recruiting reserve troops after more than 15 months of war and mounting anger against the ultra-Orthodox for not shouldering the burden, Sokol discusses the latest in the Haredi draft issue, coming to a head in the current budget debates. Sokol says the various ultra-Orthodox parties are playing this issue differently, although they all appear to want the same thing: exemptions for yeshiva students and will use different tactics to achieve their goals. He also describes his ongoing investigation into the growing number of Haredi organizations offering advice to yeshiva students and families about how to dodge draft notices. Sokol is investigating the pattern of behavior that's emerging, the illegalities involved in advising someone to avoid the draft, and the security apparatus's reticence to take action on this growing trend. Please see today's ongoing liveblog for more updates. For further reading: AG, police silent in face of growing ecosystem of Haredi evasion organizations Hasidic MKs tell Netanyahu they’ll oppose budget if draft exemption law not passed Haredi lawmakers split on approach to budget, which must pass this month or gov’t falls ‘Do not cooperate’: Nonprofit linked to top Haredi rabbis encourages draft dodging Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves. IMAGE: Haredi Jews clash with police during a protest against the ultra-Orthodox draft on Road 4 outside Bnei Brak on March 2, 2025 (Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With its origins in 19th century Poland, Lelov is unique among Chassidic dynasties due to its migrating to Ottoman Jerusalem in 1851. Rav David Biderman established the dynasty in Lelov, Poland, and his son Rav Moshe, immigrated to the Land of Israel towards the end of his life. The successive generations of Biderman's had a decisive impact on the development of the Chassidic Old Yishuv of Yerushalayim, but as a formal Chassidic dynasty, it greatly differed from its counterparts in Eastern Europe. Lelov also forged a close connection with the Karlin community and its leadership, and the Lelov rebbes were often viewed as proxies of the Karlin Rebbes. With later generations of Lelov Rebbes often visiting and even residing in Poland, and especially with the move of the Lelov Rebbe Rav Moshe Mordechai Biderman to Tel Aviv and later Bnei Brak, it leads to the conclusion that Lelov is neither Polish nor Yerushalmy, but rather between Poland and Yerushalayim.   Cross River, a leading financial institution committed to supporting its communities, is proud to sponsor Jewish History Soundbites. As a trusted partner for individuals and businesses, Cross River understands the importance of preserving and celebrating our heritage. By sponsoring this podcast, they demonstrate their unwavering dedication to enriching the lives of the communities in which they serve. Visit Cross River at https://www.crossriver.com/   Subscribe to Jewish History Soundbites Podcast on: PodBean: https://jsoundbites.podbean.com/ or your favorite podcast platform Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter or Instagram at @Jsoundbites For sponsorship opportunities about your favorite topics of Jewish history or feedback contact Yehuda at:  yehuda@yehudageberer.com  

https://www.torahrecordings.com/rebbe/igroskodesh/014/004/5012

Welcome to Perek Shira. Today we study the song of the fish. The fish say, קוֹל יי עַל הַמָּיִם אֵל הַכָּבוֹד הִרְעִים יי עַל מַיִם רַבִּים: (תהילים כט ג) The voice of Hashem is on the water, God of honor, Hashem thunders on the great waters. Obviously, the fact that it says Mayim/water refers to fish: fish live in the water. I saw a beautiful explanation based on a famous Gemara in Masechet Berachot 61B: There was a time when the Romans made a decree against the Jewish people that they shouldn't learn Torah. But Rabbi Akiva gathered massive groups of people and created a yeshiva of sorts, out in the open, not hidden underground. Papus Ben Yehuda saw this and asked him, "Akiva, You're not afraid of them?" Rabbi Akiva answered, " They say you're a wise man but you're not a wise man. Let me tell you a mashal: A fox, who's known to be cunning and deceiving, was walking on the side of a river and saw fish swimming away. The fox asked, Where are you running? They answered, " We're running away from the nets and the traps." So the fox said, " Why don't you come up on the dry land and we'll live together like we did in the old days?" (This was a little odd because foxes and fish never lived together.) The fish replied, " They say about you that you're the wisest of the animals. But you're not wise, you're a fool. If we are afraid in the place of our life (which is water ), then surely, in the place of our guaranteed death, without oxygen on land, even more so! We, the Jews, are the fish. We learn Torah and it says about learning Torah, That is your life. And so, we should surely be afraid if we stop learning !" This is important. What does it mean that Torah is our life? There's a famous story about a group of rabbis who were talking, and one rabbi said, Torah is like oxygen. The famous Birkat Shmuel, Rav Boruch Ber Leibowitz got up and he said, " Torah is not oxygen. Oxygen is what enables us to live; Torah is life itself." Torah is life itself. And on that, the fish are saying, The voice of Hashem is on the Mayim. What's the Mayim ? It's the Torah . The fish are telling us their song is, " Look at me. I thrive in my atmosphere. There's no way I could even contemplate having a better life on dry land. That's a guaranteed death." Furthermore, it says in the Gemara in Avoda Zara 3B that Man is like a fish. In this case, man refers to the Jewish people. Why are Jews compared to fish? Because just like if fish go onto the dry land, they die immediately , so too, the Jewish people, when they leave Torah and Mitzvot, they die immediately. Torah is called water, says the Maharal, and we Jewish people are like fish . We are fish in water. Just as the fish cannot survive without water, the Jewish soul cannot survive without Torah, our water, our atmosphere of living. The Jewish soul comes from above, and Torah comes from above. We are from that same atmosphere. Mishna משנה and Neshama נשמה have the same letters. That's the atmosphere of the Jewish person. And that's the voice of God that's on the water. The fish is saying, " Just look at me. I am your mashal." What does it mean miyad hametim / that the fish die immediately ? I first heard this from Rabbi Moshe Malka zt'l of Bnei Brak, who said, If you take a fish out of water, he's not dead right away. He's alive. He actually looks more alive than ever. He's jumping around, he's fully active. But he said, No, he's not fully active. When you see a fish jumping up and down, do you know what he's really doing? He's gasping for air. He needs oxygen. He's jumping up and down because he's dying . But he's not dying. He's dead. Once you pull the plug, so to say, he's dead. If someone is on some space mission and his air tube gets disconnected, he's dead right now. It' just takes some time. It's like the concept in Jewish law/if an animal has a hole in the lung called of terefa , it's considered dead now. Similarly, if a human being has a terefa , a hole in his lung, and another person kills him, the killer doesn't get the death penalty because he killed a dead man. He was already dead. The fish out of water is dead, although he might look more alive than ever. Rabbi Malka had an unbelievable line. He said that sometimes you see people that are disconnected from Torah and you say, " But look at his life! " He used the vivid example of people in a nightclub jumping up and down. They look as alive as ever. But they're like that fish that's flopping back and forth, gasping for air. That's not life. That's the throes of death. And that's the message of the fish. Kol Hashem Al HaMayim. Look at the fish and remind yourself constantly of what it means to be a fish in the water, and what it means to be a fish on dry land. What's a Jew with Torah, and what's a Jew without Torah? That is the Song of the Fish. Have a wonderful day.

Even though the Gemara concluded that Reish Lakish and Rabbi Yochanan hold positions that were originally attributed to each other, the difficulty that Rabbi Yochanan raised against Reish Lakish can still be explained as such and does not need to be reversed. At what age can one sell one’s father’s possessions? There is a debate about whether one can sell at eighteen or twenty. Rabbi Zeira tries to prove from the story in Bnei Brak where they wanted to see if there were signs of maturity on the dead body must prove that the age was eighteen as a Mishna in Nidda 57b states that over age twenty the child can sell even if they show no signs of physical maturity. Therefore, the child must have been eighteen and that explains why they want to check. However, this is rejected as they explain that the Mishna is only true in a case where there are other signs that the twenty-year-old was a saris. In the absence of those signs, they would still need to see if the child shows physical signs of maturity to enable the sale, until the child reaches mid-life, at thirty-six (into the thirty-sixth year). Can one sell the property they inherited at the age of seventeen and a day (into the eighteenth year) or nineteen and a day, according to the other opinion? The Gemara explains there is a debate here as well. However, one of the opinions was derived mistakenly from a misunderstanding of a ruling in a case that came before Rava. Gidel bar Menashya asked Rava if the sale of a fourteen-year-old girl could be accepted if she showed a clear understanding of business relations. Rava ruled that her sale was valid. The Gemara explains that the details of that case were specifically that age and a girl because that was the situation that came before him, but the same would hold at a younger age (over bar/bat mitzva) and for a boy. Rav Huna son of Rabbi Yehushua ruled that even though a child under the age of eighteen/twenty cannot sell inherited property, they can be accepted as witnesses. Mar Zutra limits this to movable property, not land. Ameimar ruled that a child can give away inheritance as a gift, even under eighteen/twenty. Rav Ashi questions the logic of this ruling.  

Even though the Gemara concluded that Reish Lakish and Rabbi Yochanan hold positions that were originally attributed to each other, the difficulty that Rabbi Yochanan raised against Reish Lakish can still be explained as such and does not need to be reversed. At what age can one sell one’s father’s possessions? There is a debate about whether one can sell at eighteen or twenty. Rabbi Zeira tries to prove from the story in Bnei Brak where they wanted to see if there were signs of maturity on the dead body must prove that the age was eighteen as a Mishna in Nidda 57b states that over age twenty the child can sell even if they show no signs of physical maturity. Therefore, the child must have been eighteen and that explains why they want to check. However, this is rejected as they explain that the Mishna is only true in a case where there are other signs that the twenty-year-old was a saris. In the absence of those signs, they would still need to see if the child shows physical signs of maturity to enable the sale, until the child reaches mid-life, at thirty-six (into the thirty-sixth year). Can one sell the property they inherited at the age of seventeen and a day (into the eighteenth year) or nineteen and a day, according to the other opinion? The Gemara explains there is a debate here as well. However, one of the opinions was derived mistakenly from a misunderstanding of a ruling in a case that came before Rava. Gidel bar Menashya asked Rava if the sale of a fourteen-year-old girl could be accepted if she showed a clear understanding of business relations. Rava ruled that her sale was valid. The Gemara explains that the details of that case were specifically that age and a girl because that was the situation that came before him, but the same would hold at a younger age (over bar/bat mitzva) and for a boy. Rav Huna son of Rabbi Yehushua ruled that even though a child under the age of eighteen/twenty cannot sell inherited property, they can be accepted as witnesses. Mar Zutra limits this to movable property, not land. Ameimar ruled that a child can give away inheritance as a gift, even under eighteen/twenty. Rav Ashi questions the logic of this ruling.  

Rav Yitzchak Zilberstein told a story in his Sefer בך בטחנו about a great Admor who appeared to his son in a dream a year after he passed away to give him a message. The son asked his father to tell him what it's like in the upper world. His father was not able to reveal too much, but he did tell him that the reward for every little deed that we do is tremendous, even for little things like getting a chair for someone to sit on, serving a cup of water or giving someone directions. We have no comprehension of how great the reward for these minor deeds are, all the more so for deeds that are more difficult to do. He said further, if someone sings a song of praise to Hashem, even if he's sitting at a Shabbat table all alone, it is as precious to Hashem as the Leviyim singing to Him in the Beit Hamikdash. We can't imagine how great even one Amen is. A man by the name of Mati had to deliver an envelope to someone who worked in a bank in Tel Aviv. When he arrived he was told the person he needed was in a meeting. In the meantime he sat down to eat an apple. He was accustomed to always saying all of his berachot slow and loud, so right there in the bank he made the beracha out loud. One of the bankers there went over to him and said, "What are you yelling? This is not Bnei Brak, please talk quietly." A few days later he returned to that bank with another letter to deliver and once again he had to wait. This time he said his beracha quietly. The same banker saw him and said, "Why did you say the beracha so low? I wanted to hear it." Mati told him he was only following orders. The banker then told him he used to be religious but he lost everything. Last week when he berated him for saying the beracha out loud, his mother came to him in a dream very angry saying how much suffering he was causing her in the upper world. She then said, "If you would have answered Amen to that beracha, it would have elevated my soul so much. But instead, you yelled at the person for doing it." The banker then told Mati he couldn't believe that even an amen from someone like him would be meaningful. The banker then apologized and gave Mati something else to make a beracha on so he could answer Amen. Hashem appreciates every little deed that a person does and will reward him greatly for every one of them. How much more so if the deeds are difficult to do. A rosh kollel in Lakewood recently told the following story about one of the students who learned in his kollel who we'll call Yehuda. Lo aleinu, Yehuda's wife had a miscarriage at a late stage. The rosh kollel told Yehuda to take off as much time as needed to be with his wife and give her support. This was on a Friday. On Sunday morning Yehuda was back in the kollel learning the full day. The rosh kollel asked him about it. Yehuda told him they were inspired by a statement from the Zohar: " חזו בני חביבי דמשכחין בצערא דילהון ועסקין בחדוותא דילי - Hashem says, "Look at my precious children. They forget about their own sorrows and they take delight in my Torah." They wanted to fulfill that precept and bring pleasure to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. So the man's wife encouraged him to go learn. The very next day Yehuda received a call from a cousin of his asking if he could borrow his violin. The cousin came to pick it up. Before leaving, he wanted to test it out. This cousin had no idea what was going on in Yehuda's life with the miscarriage. He then started playing a song and the words were " חזו חזו בני חביבי "- the very same words that had just inspired Yehuda and his wife to go learn. They felt Hashem was talking to them directly telling them how much He appreciated that sacrifice. Our deeds are so valuable, and therefore we should do every one of them happily and enthusiastically.

“I never thought there's antisemitism. It's something from the past, for my grandparents, for my mom a little, but it's not something in my generation, or my kids' generation. It's done . . . apparently, not.” Einat Admony is a chef, cookbook author, comedian, and social media star who grew up in Bnei Brak, Israel. With parents from Iran and Yemen, Einat spent her childhood in the kitchens of Mizrahi, Sephardi, and Ashkenazi neighbors. Learn about her family's deep-rooted Jewish heritage in Iran and the broader Middle East. Along with her mother Ziona's journey from Iran to Israel in 1948, Einat discusses the antisemitism she's dealt with online and on the streets in the past year. Hear her stories of Jewish-Muslim coexistence in Iran and memories of spices and perfumes that inspire Einat's dishes. Her cookbooks Balaboosta and Shuk, along with her Manhattan restaurant Balaboosta, reflect a blend of tradition and innovation. “You could not have Judaism today, if it were not for the Jews of Iran,” says Houman Sarshar, an independent scholar and director of publications at the Center for Iranian Jewish Oral History in Los Angeles. Sarshar highlights the historical relationship between Iran and Israel, noting that Iran was the second Muslim-majority country to recognize Israel post-1948.  The conversation also touches on the challenges faced by Jews in Iran, their cultural integration, and the impact of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.  —- Show notes: How much do you know about Jewish history in the Middle East? Take our quiz. Sign up to receive podcast updates. Learn more about the series. Song credits:  Pond5:  “Desert Caravans”: Publisher: Pond5 Publishing Beta (BMI), Composer: Tiemur Zarobov (BMI), IPI#1098108837 “Suspense Middle East” Publisher: Victor Romanov, Composer: Victor Romanov; Item ID: 196056047 ___ Episode Transcript: EINAT ADMONY: I've been in Israel a few months ago. It's like you always feel loved, you always feel supported. It's still home. It's always going to be my home. MANYA BRACHEAR PASHMAN: The world has overlooked an important episode in modern history: the 800,000 Jews who left or were driven from their homes in the Middle East and North Africa in the mid-20th century. Welcome to the second season of The Forgotten Exodus, brought to you by American Jewish Committee. This series explores that pivotal moment in history and the little-known Jewish heritage of Iran and Arab nations. As Jews around the world confront violent antisemitism and Israelis face daily attacks by terrorists on multiple fronts, our second season explores how Jews have lived throughout the region for generations despite hardship, hostility, and hatred, then sought safety and new possibilities in their ancestral homeland. I'm your host, Manya Brachear Pashman. Join us as we explore untold family histories and personal stories of courage, perseverance, and resilience from this transformative and tumultuous period of history for the Jewish people and the Middle East.  The world has ignored these voices. We will not.  This is The Forgotten Exodus. Today's episode: Leaving Iran. MANYA: Whether she's deviling eggs soaked in beet juice, simmering Oxtail in shawarma spices, or sprinkling za'atar on pastry dough, chef Einat Admony is honoring her family's Middle Eastern heritage. Both the places where they have lived for generations, as well as the place they have and will always call home: Israel.   EINAT/Clip: Start with brushing the puff pastry with olive oil and za'atar. Have some feta all around and shredded mozzarella. Take the other sheet and just cut it to one inch strips. Now we're going to twist. Need to be careful. Now we're just gonna brush the top with the mix of oil and za'atar. Get it some shiny and glazy. This is ready for the oven. Bake at 400 until it's golden. That's it super easy, just sprinkle some za'atar and eat. MANYA: For the chef, author, reality TV star, and comedian, food reflects the Zionist roots that have been a constant for Einat, the self-made balaboosta, who is largely credited with introducing Israeli cuisine to the U.S. That love for Israel goes back generations, long before the modern state existed, when her maternal ancestors lived in the land, that until 1935 was known as Persia, but is now known as Iran. Her own mother Ziona, the third of seven siblings, was even named for the destination where Einat's grandparents aspired to one day raise their family. Returning home to the land of Zion from which Jews had been exiled centuries earlier was always the goal. When you ask her why, Einat laughs in disbelief.  EINAT: Why? Why? That's homeland. I think a lot of Jewish people for hundreds of years was, that's in every prayer, it's in every Shabbat dinner evening. MANYA: The hatred directed toward Israel by Iran's regime in the form of the deadly attacks on Israel by Iran-backed terrorist groups and the Islamic Republic of Iran itself make it hard to believe that Iran was once a place where Jews and the Zionist movement thrived. But in fact, Iran's history includes periods when the wide-open roads between Iran and Israel ran two ways and the countries not only lived in harmony but worked in close partnership.  Iran was the second Muslim-majority country after Turkey to recognize the modern state of Israel after its formation in 1948, and the two established diplomatic ties. Regular flights ran between Tehran's Mehrabad International Airport and Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport.  SARSHAR: We cannot overlook the fact that since October 29, 539 BCE the Jewish community of Iran remains to this day the largest community of Jews anywhere in the Middle East outside the state of Israel. To this day. You could not have Judaism today, if it were not for the Jews of Iran.  MANYA: Houman Sarshar is an independent scholar and director of publications at the Center for Iranian Jewish Oral History in Los Angeles. He has edited a number of books, including Esther's Children: A Portrait of Iranian Jews.  SARSHAR: The history of the Jews in Iran begins about 2,700 years ago, when the first community of known Jews was taken to Iran. They are commonly believed to be one of the 10 Lost Tribes. And then when we fast forward to when Nebuchadnezzar came and destroyed the temple in Jerusalem and took Jews into captivity. Some years after that at 539 BCE on October 29, 539 BCE, to be exact, Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Achaemenid dynasty, liberated Babylon and gave Jews the permission to go back to Israel and rebuild the Second Temple. MANYA: Cyrus the Great – a Persian emperor particularly renowned among contemporary scholars for the respect he showed toward peoples' customs and religions in the lands that he conquered. According to the Book of Ezra in the Hebrew Bible, Cyrus even paid for the restoration of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. SARSHAR: This is known as the Second Temple period in Jewish history, and under the Achaemenid dynasty, Jews participated in every level of society. And a few centuries forward, around the 5th Century, we know the Jews continue to live with many freedoms, because that is the era when the Babylonian Talmud was originally produced in Iran by Rav Ashi. So, you know, there was a thriving rabbanut (rabbanite) in Iran who had the freedom and the luxury and the time to be able to produce such an important document as the Talmud, which has become the cornerstone of all jurisprudence that we know, Western law, and everything. MANYA: The advent and arrival of Islam in Iran in the 7th Century CE changed circumstances somewhat. As was the case across the Middle East, all non-Muslims became dhimmis – residents who paid a special tax and lived under certain restrictions. The situation for Jews worsened in the 16th Century when the Safavid dynasty made the Shiite creed the dominant form of Islam in Iran. Fatwas made life for all non-Shiites quite difficult. SARSHAR: And for reasons that are still open to discussion, all of these restrictions were most vehemently imposed on the Jews of Iran. And because of these restrictions, all non-Shiites were considered religiously impure. And this religious impurity, kind of like the concept of the untouchable sect in India, they were considered pollutive. MANYA: Jews could not look Muslims in the eye. They were placed in ghettos called mahaleh where they could not leave on rainy days for fear the water that splattered on them could contaminate the water supply. They wore yellow stars and special shoes to distinguish them from the rest of the population. They were not allowed to purchase property from Muslims or build homes with walls that were higher than those of their Muslim neighbors. SARSHAR: They could not, for example, participate in the trade of edible goods because, you know, fruits and vegetables and meats carried this pollution. So Muslims could no longer consume the foods that were touched by Jews. And as a result, this created a certain path forward in history for the Jews of Iran.  They went into antique trades. They went into carpet trades. They went into work of textiles. They became musicians. And for the following 500 years, these restrictions kind of guided the way the Jews of Iran lived in that country, even though they had been there for thousands of years previously. MANYA: Houman said the 1895 arrival of the Alliance Israélite Universelle, a Paris-based network of schools for Jewish children throughout the Middle East and North Africa, including within the mahalehs in Persia, was the first step in a series of improvements for Jews there. SARSHAR: Previous to that, Jews were not allowed to get any kind of an education whatsoever. The only teachers were the Muslim clergy, and they refused to teach anything to Jewish students. So this allowed for the Jewish community to finally start to get a Western-style education, which was very important at that time, given all of the dynamics that were going on in society with modernity. MANYA: As educational opportunities increased in the middle of the 19th Century, so did opportunities for the courtiers and elite to travel and see the Western world as it industrialized and modernized, expanding international trade and sharing wealth more widely. SARSHAR: Often they would be sent by their families to go and try to see if they can, you know, find a way to expand the family's businesses and lives as merchants, and they would come back shocked. I mean, Iran was a place where you know of mostly mud brick homes and dirt roads and people riding around on donkeys. And imagine this is all you've known. You never see women walking around the street. The only women you have ever seen with your own eyes in your life are your mom, your sister, your daughter or your wife, and occasionally, sex workers. And that's it. So all of a sudden, you know, you travel a couple of months by boat and train, and you get to Paris, and it's impossible to try to even conceive of the experience. It must have been something like the Hegelian experience of the sublime. What can the world look like? And where is it that I live in, and why isn't my country the same as this? MANYA: By the early 20th Century, the Persian people concluded the answer to that question was in the rule of law. The reason the European nations provided such opportunity for the community at-large had to do with the fact that the law of the land was not arbitrary or enforced by religion or royalty. It was embedded in a constitution – a set of laws that define the structure of a government and the rights of its citizens – a Western tenet that reduced the power of the clergy and created a parliament called the Majles. SARSHAR: They were starting to read travel journals. They were starting to understand the perspective that Westerners had on Iranians, and those perspectives were often awful. You know, the Western world believed, for example –the country was corrupt to the bone in every respect.  So all of these things gradually led to a call for a constitution, the major pivot of which was the establishment of a legislature of law that would start to create a community where everyone can feel like they're equal in the eyes of the law and have something to gain by trying to improve the country as a whole. Iran became the first constitutional monarchy in the Middle East in 1906 when that revolution happened, it was a momentous event. And really, things really, really did, in fact, start to change. MANYA: In 1925, Reza Shah Pahlavi – an arch nationalist who wanted to propel Iran forward into the industrial age – took over the crown of Iran. He welcomed any Iranian citizen to participate in that agenda. SARSHAR: By now, we had a good two generations of Jews who had been French-educated by the Allianz Society.  They had all gone to France at some point in their lives, so they were able to participate in this industrialization of the country, given the language skills that they had and some of the connections they had built in the Western world. MANYA: Both World Wars in Europe took a massive toll on Iran. Despite declaring neutrality, Iran was occupied by European nations that took over the nation's agriculture, treating Iran as a pantry to feed the armies. Droughts and disease worsened the toll. SARSHAR: One of the lesser-known factoids about history is that during World War I, the nation that lost the most individuals as a result of the war was Iran. Above and beyond all European nations who were at war, because of a famine that had started in Iran. The same dynamic started to happen in World War II. MANYA: With nationalist fever sweeping Europe and Iran, the Allies feared the arch-nationalist Shah would go the way of Franco in Spain, Mussolini in Italy, and Hitler in Germany. They also feared the Shah would collaborate with Hitler's Germany to provide oil for the German oil machine and cease being the pantry the Allies needed it to be. In 1941, the Western powers convinced him to abdicate the throne to his son Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. And when the war ended, Iran was able to enjoy the same economic benefits as the rest of the world at peace time. Most importantly, it was able to profit from its own oil reserves, significantly boosting Iran's national income. SARSHAR: In 1941, it was really the beginning of what is commonly referred to by the scholars of Jewish Iranian history as the Golden Age of Iranian Jewry. From 1941 until the revolution in 1978, the Jewish community of Iran saw a meteoric rise to power and social wealth. Industries such as pharmaceuticals, banking, insurance, real estate development, and other major industries, the aluminum plastics industries in Iran, all were either directly owned by the Jews of Iran or managed under their management.  And during this period, really, we can say that for the first time, after 2,500 years, the Jews of Iran really started to experience the kinds of freedoms that they had not seen since the Achaemenid dynasty. And it is during this time that, you know, we see, really, that life started to change for the Jews of Iran, even though some of the age-old social dynamics were still there.  The institutionalized antisemitism had not been completely wiped out. But for the most part, things had changed because Iranian society in general was also being Westernized, light speed. And many educated people had realized that antisemitism was really looked down upon, you know, that kind of prejudice was really no longer acceptable in the world at large. So many, many sections of the community really had shifted, genuinely shifted. And some, even though maybe their feelings had not changed, knew that their antisemitism was something that they needed to keep private. MANYA: At that time, Iran also became a refuge for Jews fleeing Europe and other parts of the Middle East. On June 1, 1941, a brutal pogrom in Iraq known as the Farhud, incited by Nazi propaganda, targeted Jews celebrating the holiday of Shavuot. Nearly 200 Jews were murdered in the streets. The violence became a turning point for Iraqi Jews. Thousands fled, many stopping in Iran, which became a way station for those headed to Palestine.  In 1942, thousands of Jewish refugees from Poland who had fled across the border into the Soviet Union during the German invasion traveled on trains and ships to Iran. Among the refugees – 1,000 orphaned children.  As Zionist leaders worked to negotiate the young Jews' immigration to Palestine, the Jewish Agency established the “Tehran Home for Jewish Children” – a complex of tents on the grounds of a former Iranian Air Force barracks outside Tehran. More than 800 orphans, escorted by adults, most of them also refugees, moved from Tehran to kibbutzim in Palestine the following year. Later, in 1948, when most Arab League states forbade the emigration of their Jews after the creation of Israel, the Zionist underground continued to smuggle Jews to Iran at about a rate of 1,000 a month, before they were flown to Israel. SARSHAR: The Zionist movement was fairly strong in Iran. It was a very lively movement. The Balfour Declaration was celebrated in all of the Allianz schools in Iran, and very soon thereafter, the first Zionist organization of Iran was established. And truly many of its founding fathers were some of the leading industrialists and intellectuals in Iranian society, in the Jewish Iranian community for the years to come. It was not unlike the kind of Zionism we see today in the United States, for example. You know, the wealthy families of the Jewish communities in New York and Los Angeles, all are very passionate about Israel, but you don't see very many of them selling their homes and packing up and moving to Israel because they just don't want to do it. They feel like they're very comfortable here. And what matters is that a state of Israel should exist, and they are political advocates of that state and of that policy and of its continued existence, but not necessarily diehard participants in the experiment itself. Iranians, after the establishment of the State of Israel, were being encouraged to move to Israel, and the Israeli government was having a lot of difficulty with that, because a lot of Iranians were seeing that life had become better for them, and they weren't as willing to leave, despite the fact that the Kourosh Project provided airplanes to get Jews out of Iran. My own great-grandmother was one of those passengers. She is buried in Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. She was one of the early citizens of Israel who went to live out the Zionist dream. MANYA: Both sides of Einat's family – her mother and father's ancestors – were among those early Israeli citizens. Einat's father was born in Tel Aviv. His parents and grandparents had come from Yemen in the late 19th Century. Einat's mother Ziona was 10 years old when in 1948, the family left Kerman, a city in southeastern Iran known for its carpet weaving and woolen shawls. They arrived in Israel with their suitcases ready to fulfill their dream. But living the dream in the new Jewish nation was not easy. After all, the day after Israel declared its independence, Arab nations attacked the Jewish state, launching the first of a series of Arab-Israeli Wars. EINAT: The story of my mom, it's a very interesting story. The family didn't have much money. There wasn't like, rich family that left, very different story. No, both of my parents come from very, I would say, very poor family. My grandpa was, like, dealing with textile. He was like, traveling from town to town with fabric. And that's what they did. They put them in what's called ma'aborot, which was like a very kind of small villages, tin houses. My mom always said there were seven kids, so all of them in one room. In the winter it's freezing; in the summer, it's super hot. But it was also close to the border, so the one window they have, they always had to cover it so at night, the enemy cannot see the light inside that room and shoot there. Also in the ma'aabarot, nobody speaks the same language. So, it was Moroccan and Iraqi and nobody speak the same dialect or the same language. So, they cannot even communicate quite yet. MANYA: Most of Ziona's six siblings did not go to school. To make it possible for Ziona, her parents placed her in a foster home with an Iraqi family in Ramat Gan, east of Tel Aviv. EINAT: My mom's family decided that for her, she should get education, because most of the siblings didn't went to school or anything, So they put her in a foster home. In an Iraqi home, and she didn't speak a word there. So my mom, as a 10 years old, became a kid for foster parents that live in a center in Ramat Gan, where I basically grew up. And she got education, which was great. She learned also Iraqi, which is Arabic. So she speaks fluent Arabic, but she had not an easy life in coming to Israel from a different country. MANYA: Ziona has shared many of these stories with her daughter in the kitchen and dining room as they prepare and enjoy dishes that remind them of home. When she visited her daughter at her home in upstate New York at the end of the summer, Einat collected as many stories as she could over cutting boards, steaming pots, and sizzling pans. EINAT: There's a lot of story coming up, some old story that I know, some new stories. And it's really nice, because my mom is 84, 85. So, it's really nice to capture all of it, all of it. There is a lot of interesting stuff that happened during the first 10 years when she came to Israel.  That's the main, I think, I always talk about, like, how I grew up and how much food was a very substantial part of our life, if not the biggest part. You know, it's like, family can fight and this, but when it's come to the dinner, it's just change everything, the dynamic. For us, it was a big, significant part of everything. So obviously, most of these stories and memories come in while we're cooking or eating. A lot of time she used to talk about, and still talking about the smells, the smells of the flowers, the smells of the zafar (perfume). She still have the nostalgia from that time and talking very highly about what Iran used to be, and how great, and the relationship between the Muslims and the Jews back then. My grandpa's best friend was crying when he left, and he said: ‘Please don't go. Stay with us.' And he said: ‘I want to go to homeland.' So, they have a really great relationship. She's always talking, actually, about how they come for Shabbat dinner, the friends if they put the cigarettes outside of the door in Shabbat because they were observant. So cigarettes, lighter, everything, they keep it outside, in the garden, not coming inside the house. So a lot of mutual respect for the religion to each other. And I love that stories. It just showed what's happened when people take it extreme. MANYA: Einat's cookbooks and restaurant menus are filled with recipes from her own childhood and her parents' upbringing. To satisfy the appetite of her father, a former Israeli athlete, her house always had hummus and every weekend, the family made a hilbeh sauce --  a traditional Yemenite fenugreek dip made with cardamom, caraway seeds and chili flakes. Other recipes reflect her mother's Persian roots. And then there are recipes that, at first blush, seem to come out of left field, but are inspired by the Iraqi Jewish foster family that raised her mother, and the Mizrahi, Sephardi, and Ashkenazi neighbors that passed through the dining room and kitchen where Einat was raised in Bnei Brak.  Now a Haredi town east of Tel Aviv, it was then a diverse population of Jews from, well, everywhere. Einat still remembers standing on a stool next to the Moroccan neighbor in her building learning how to roll couscous. EINAT: One neighbor that was my second mom, her name was Tova, and she was Moroccan, so it was like, I have another Moroccan mom. But all the building was all Holocaust survivors. None of them had kids, and they were all speaking in Yiddish, mostly. So I grew up with a lot of mix. I wouldn't say, you know, in my time, it's not like our neighborhood. I grew up in Bnei Brak, and our neighborhood was very, it was before Bnei Brak became so religious like today. It was still religious, if you go really in, but we're close to Ramat Gan, and I have to say that it's, I would say, I didn't grow up with, it's very mixed, very mixed.  Wouldn't say I grew up just with Moroccan or Mizrahi, I say that it's very, very mixed. And my mom same. I think a lot of her friend is like, It's my mom would speak some Yiddish. She would do Kugel on Shabbat next to the jachnun and all the Mizrahi food. You know, this is the multi-pot and one things I love in Israel. You can see in one table so many different cultures. And that's something that would have happened in my house a lot. MANYA: That amalgam of Jewish cultures is reflected in her cookbooks Balaboosta and Shuk. It also shows up in her menu at the brick-and-mortar Balaboosta, a quaint Middle Eastern trattoria on Mulberry Street in Manhattan.  The name Balaboosta is borrowed from Yiddish meaning “a perfect housewife” – a twist on ba'al habayit, Hebrew for master of the house, or boss. But Einat insists that the term is no longer exclusively Ashkenazi, nor does it refer exclusively to a woman's domestic role. EINAT: An old friend, chef, asked me when I went to open Balaboosta, and I said, ‘I don't have a name.' She said: ‘What do you call a badass woman in Hebrew?' I'm like, ‘balaboosta.' She said, ‘It's a perfect name. We done.' Took five minutes to find this name, and I love it. It's really connected because for me it's so so much different things. You know, I always talk about the 20th century balaboosta. The balaboosta that outside going to work, the balaboosta that asking a man for a date. The balaboosta that it's not just like she's the housewife and the homekeeper. It's much more than that. Today, she's a multitask badass.  It's much more spiritual than what it is. I think it's the one that can bond the people together and bring them together and make peace between two parties clashing. So for me, it's much more than somebody that can cook and clean. So, much, much more than that. MANYA: Einat's parents became more religious when she was 12, which of course had the opposite effect on their daughter: she rebelled. When her time came to do her mandatory service in the Israel Defense Force, she was determined not to serve in a role typically assigned to women. She requested a post as a firing instructor. But after reviewing the high school transcript shaped by her rebellious adolescence, the IDF assigned her to the Nevatim Air Base where she served as a chauffeur for fighter pilots. EINAT: Back then most women would be secretaries giving coffee to some assholes. I was trying not to do that, and somehow I got very lucky, and I was in the same division, I was in the Air Force. I had amazing time for two years. I start the military a very different person, and left a very different person. I used to hang with a lot of bad people before, really bad people. And when I get to the military, I was a driver of pilots, it's the top of the top of the top in the hierarchy in the military in all IDF. So now I'm hanging with people that have the biggest ambition ever, and I'm learning new stuff, and everything opened up, even my language changed completely. Everything. I was want to travel more than I ever want before, and I have like, crazy dreams. MANYA: To make sure the elite pilots were well-fed, the IDF bused in a group of Yemenite grandmothers to provide ochel bayit, or home-cooked meals. Einat befriended the kitchen staff and helped out from time to time. Then in January 1991, she was tapped to cook a meal that probably launched her career. The IDF chiefs of staff had convened at Nevatim base to discuss the U.S. plan to bomb Iraq during the Gulf War and what Israel would do if Saddam Hussein retaliated with an attack on the Jewish state. But they needed to plot that strategy on full stomachs. A couple of pilots served as her sous chefs. That night, the Israeli generals dined on Chinese chicken with garlic, honey, and soy. And a rice salad. EINAT: It was definitely the turning point, the military.  I would say there is some values of relationship and working ethics that I wouldn't see anywhere else, and that's coming, I think because the military. They're waking up in the morning, the friendship, they're no snitching or none of this. It's to stand up for each other. There is so many other values that I grabbed from that. So when I start my culinary career, and I was in a fine dining kitchen, it was very helpful, very helpful. MANYA: After spending five years in a van driving around Germany – an extended celebration of freedom after IDF service --  it was time to get serious about a career. A culinary career made as good a sense as any. Einat worked as a waitress in Eilat and enrolled in culinary school. At the end, she marched into the kitchen of Keren, one of the first restaurants in Israel to offer haute cuisine. She got an internship, then a job. The former restaurant, run by Israeli Chef and television host Haim Cohen, is credited for reinventing Israeli cuisine. Now, as a restaurant owner and TV personality herself, Einat is largely credited for introducing Israeli cuisine to the U.S. But before she became the self-made Balaboosta of fine Israeli dining, Einat was America's Falafel Queen, made famous by two victories on the Food Network's show Chopped and her first restaurant – now a fast food chain called Ta'im Falafel. But her fame and influence when it comes to Israeli cooking has exposed her to a fair bit of criticism. She has become a target on social media by those who accuse Israelis of appropriating Palestinian foods – an argument she calls petty and ridiculous. So ridiculous, she has found the best platform to address it is on the stage of her new hobby: stand-up comedy. Cooking has always been her Zen. But so is dark humor. EINAT: I like comedy more than anything, not more than food, but close enough. EINAT/Clip: Yeah, this year was great here on Instagram, lot of hate comments, though. A lot about food appropriation, me making Arabic dishes. So let me clarify something here. I check my DNA through ancestry.com and I am 97% Middle Eastern, so I fucking bleed hummus. EINAT: It's very petty. Food, supposed always to share. Food supposed to moving forward.  It's tiring and life is much more complex than to even argue and have a debate about stupid things. I'm done. OK, yes, we're indigenous.I have connection to the land. My parents, my grandparents and great grandparents have connection to that land. Okay, I get it. Now we need to solve what's going on, because there was Palestinian that lived there before, and how we can, for me, how we change the ideology, which I don't see how we can, but how we can change the ideology, convince them that they want peace. And they want…I don't know. MANYA: Needless to say, in the year that has followed the attacks of October 7, stand-up comedy has not been the balm it once was. The attacks that unfolded that day by Iran-backed terrorists that killed more than 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped more than 250 more was simply too devastating. EINAT: I was broken there, my husband was with me, I was every day on a bed crying, and then going to work, and it was like I couldn't hear music, because every music thinking about Nova and my friends and then I couldn't see babies with a mom. Everything was a trigger. It was bad. We had a disaster of October 7 and then October 8 to see the world reaction was another. It's not just enough that we going through so much grief and need to kind of contain all that emotion and crazy and anger and rage and now we need to see the world's. Like, ok. I never thought there is antisemitism. It's something from the past, for my grandparents, for my mom a little, but it's not something in my generation, or my kids' generation. It's done, apparently, not. MANYA: The lack of sympathy around the world and among her culinary peers only amplified Einat's grief. As a way to push for a cease-fire and end U.S. support for Israel, nearly 900 chefs, farmers and others in the food industry signed a pledge to boycott Israel-based food businesses and culinary events that promote Israel. EINAT: I felt very, very alone, very alone. The first few months, I felt like, wow, not one call from anyone to check on me. It was pretty sad. At the same time, I'm in the best company ever Jewish community. There is nothing like that, nothing. MANYA: Her team at Balaboosta also checked in on their Israeli boss. But they too were scared. Soon after she posted pictures of the hostages on the window of her restaurant, she confronted a group of teenagers who tried to tear them down. EINAT: I stand in front of them and I said, ‘You better move fast'. MANYA: It's no secret that Iran helped plan Oct. 7. What is not as well known is how many Jews still live and thrive in Iran. Before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, there were nearly 100,000 Jews in Iran. Today, Israeli sources say the population numbers less than 10,000, while the regime and Iran's Jewish leaders say it's closer to 20,000. Regardless, Iran's Jewish community remains the largest in the Middle East outside Israel.  To be sure, the constitution adopted in 1906 is still in place nominally, and it still includes Jews as a protected religious minority. Jews in Iran have synagogues, access to kosher meat, and permission to consume wine for Shabbat, despite a national ban on alcohol. There's also a Jewish representative in Iran's parliament or Majlis. But all women and girls regardless of religion are required to wear a veil, according to the Islamist dress code, and Jews are pressured to vote in elections at Jewish-specific ballot stations so the regime can monitor their participation. Zionism is punishable by death and after Oct. 7, the regime warned its Jewish citizens to sever contact with family and friends in Israel or risk arrest. They also can't leave. Iranian law forbids an entire Jewish nuclear family from traveling abroad at the same time. At least one family member, usually the father, must remain behind to prevent emigration. But Houman points out that many Iranian Jews, including himself, are deeply attached to Iranian culture. As a resident of Los Angeles, he reads Persian literature, cooks Persian herb stew for his children and speaks in Persian to his pets. He would return to Iran in an instant if given the opportunity to do so safely. For Jews living in Iran it may be no different. They've become accustomed to living under Islamist laws. They may not want to leave, even if they could. SARSHAR: The concept of living and thriving in Iran, for anyone who is not related to the ruling clergy and the Revolutionary Guard, is a dream that feels unattainable by anyone in Iran, let alone the Jews. In a world where there is really no fairness for anyone, the fact that you're treated even less fairly almost fades. MANYA: Scholars say since the Islamic Revolution, most Jews who have left Iran have landed in Los Angeles or Long Island, New York. Still, more Jews of Iranian descent live in Israel – possibly more than all other countries combined. The reason why? Because so many like Einat's family made aliyah–up until the mid-20th Century.  It's hard to say where another exodus might lead Iranian Jews to call home. Einat will be forever grateful that her family left when they still could and landed in a beautiful and beloved place. Though she lives in the U.S. now, she travels back to Israel at least twice a year. EINAT: It's a dream for every Jew, it's not just me. It's the safe zone for every Jew. It's the one place that, even if we have, it's not safe because there is people around us that want to kill us. It's still emotionally. You know, I've been in Israel a few months ago, it's like, you always feel loved, you always feel supported. It's incredible. And it's still home. It's always going to be my home. MANYA: Persian Jews are just one of the many Jewish communities who, in the last century, left Middle Eastern and North African countries to forge new lives for themselves and future generations.  Many thanks to Einat for sharing her family's story. You can enjoy some of her family's favorite recipes in her cookbooks Balaboosta and Shuk. Her memoir Taste of Love was recently released in  an audio and digital format.  Too many times during my reporting, I encountered children and grandchildren who didn't have the answers to my questions because they'd never asked. That's why one of the goals of this project is to encourage you to ask those questions. Find your stories. Atara Lakritz is our producer. T.K. Broderick is our sound engineer. Special thanks to Jon Schweitzer, Nicole Mazur, Sean Savage, and Madeleine Stern, and so many of our colleagues, too many to name really, for making this series possible. You can subscribe to The Forgotten Exodus on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts, and you can learn more at AJC.org/theforgottenexodus.  The views and opinions of our guests don't necessarily reflect the positions of AJC. You can reach us at theforgottenexodus@ajc.org. If you've enjoyed this episode, please be sure to spread the word, and hop onto Apple Podcasts or Spotify to rate us and write a review to help more listeners find us.

There are many lessons that our Rabbis learn from the case of the בן סורר ומורה -the rebellious wicked son, which apply to Rosh Hashanah. One of them is that Hashem judges a person based on the direction that he's headed in more than on what he has done in the past year. Another one is that the בן סורר ומורה can only be sentenced to his harsh punishment if he committed the crimes in the first three months since he turned thirteen. And that is precisely why the Torah deals with him so harshly. He just turned Bar Mitzvah. Here he is just starting a new beginning and the first things he does are totally against the Torah. There is something special about a new beginning. We are supposed to feel like we have an opportunity to do everything right from the start. These are the feelings we are supposed to have now with Rosh Hashanah upon us. Even if we haven't been the best we could be, now we have a new chance to do things right from the start. One of the best places to begin with is right in our own homes. There is so much pain that people are experiencing all over the world. At least let us do what we can to make our homes places of happiness. We can resolve to give our spouses the attention and warmth that they need to be happy in marriage. We can go out of our way to be sweeter and more patient. A home with shalom bayit is a place where the Shechina dwells. Every little improvement goes a long way. I read a story that a man from Bnei B'rak told about himself. It was late one Erev Rosh Hashanah and he was planning to walk with his family to the other side of Bnei Brak to eat the meal with his wife's family. He told his family how important it was for them to be on time so that he wouldn't be late to the first Arbit of the new year. However, as it often happens, his wife needed extra time to get ready and he was watching the clock and getting more anxious by the minute. Eventually, he saw that he was definitely going to be late to Arbit . Inside, he was so angry. His wife knew it was Rosh Hashanah and how important it was for him to be on time for shul. His patience had reached its limit. And then, finally they were off. As they were walking, he found himself debating whether or not to express his disappointment and frustration to his wife. He said to himself, "Would Hashem want me to vent to my wife now? Or would He rather me treat her with respect, patience and empathy? Was she really trying to make me late or did she just get caught up in things that were important to her?" With that, he decided the best thing he could do to serve Hashem at that moment would be to stay quiet. So he took a deep breath and spoke to his wife as if everything was completely fine. They walked at a nice pace, without her feeling pressured, and had a nice conversation along the way. Indeed, he arrived to shul late and prayed the best he could under the circumstances. While that incident eventually receded to the back of his mind, he noticed something interesting as the year began to unfold. He was enjoying success in all areas on a level that he never experienced. It was so out of the ordinary that it struck him. He was waiting for his mazal to run out, but it continued throughout the year. He thought long and hard why he may have been zocheh to success on such a profound level, but he really didn't have a good answer. He had a typical year before, spiritually, with basically the same strong points and imperfections as usual. The only thing that he could think of was the self-control and patience that he displayed towards his wife on the night of Rosh Hashanah. We can never know for sure, but we do know how valuable it is to perfect our middot and overcome our inclinations to get angry, especially when it comes to our spouses. May Hashem help us start off the new year the right way and help us become the people that we are capable of becoming.

Hilchos Nizkei Shcenim Part 5: Can I block the windows of a Shul? Can I add tenants to my apartment?!?(Bnei Brak)

https://www.artscroll.com/ Books/lemynh.html  Living Emunah on Yamim Noraim Gaining faith from the Days of Awe At this time of year, we're trying to find the most favor in Hashem's eyes. We want to know what steps we could take to accomplish this. The pasuk says, ועשית הישר והטוב בעיני ה' אלוקיך . There's a mitzvah to go beyond the letter of the law and do what is upright and good in the eyes of Hashem. Rabbi Eliyahu Lopian writes in his Sefer Lev Eliyahu , this is a mitzvah which specifically makes us find favor in Hashem's eyes. It is accomplished by doing things that we are not commanded to do, but we know would make Hashem proud if we did. The Gemara speaks about many cases in which, according to the letter of the law, Person A was entitled to keep money, but he was encouraged to go beyond the law and give the money to the other party. Rabbi Lopian points out, in the previous pasuk , it says שמור תשמרון in plural which is a general command to perform the mitzvot, and therefore it is written in plural. But, when it comes to the pasuk to go beyond the letter of the law, it is written in singular, ועשית הישר והטוב because this is according to each individual's level to be able to accomplish that. The pasuk continues, למען ייטב לך - we should go above the letter of the law so that Hashem will be able to give us more good. Whenever we are presented with a circumstance and we know we're right but there's room to give in, we can either exercise our right to be correct or we can choose to do what would make Hashem proud and thereby find favor in His eyes and be zocheh to more good from Him. Rabbi Elimelech Biderman related a story that was told to him by the head of Hatzalah in Bnei Brak, Rabbi Yaakov HaLevi which took place just a few weeks ago. It was a Sunday morning at around 5:30 AM. They got a call about a fire on the third floor of a building on Simta Menasheh Street. There was an older couple trapped in the home, and the street was too narrow for the fire department to reach with their big truck. The Hatzalah members arrived on the scene and saw the older couple in the window of their apartment completely trapped. The stairwell was on fire, and it was slowly creeping towards them. The couple could not physically jump out of the window, and since the fire trucks couldn't reach them, there was no ladder that would extend to their height. One of the Hatzalah members, Rabbi Elchanan Maimo, saw that underneath their window was a porch with beams in place ready to be used for a sukkah , a type of pergola. He got a ladder and was able to climb to that porch. He then climbed up the pergola, stood on top of the beams and helped each of those people come down. Just as the fire was approaching them, he was able to save their lives. Rabbi Yaakov, the head of the Hatzalah, then recalled the events which led to that pergola being built, the means that was used to save this couple's lives. About a year and a half ago, that elderly woman fainted in her apartment and the Hatzalah came and revived her. A couple of weeks later, she went down to the Hatzalah office to thank them personally. She also told the head of Hatzalah that her downstairs neighbor wanted to do a major construction job, and he needed her permission. Her doctor had told her that because of her condition it would not be wise to allow it as the dust could hurt her very much. She asked the head of the Hatzalah what to do. He told her, "You definitely have every right to deny them, but I'm sure they really want to embark on this building project, and if you want to go above and beyond, if there's some place you could stay for a few months that would allow them to build then you should do that." She took the advice and stayed by one of her children's homes and allowed the neighbor to do construction. Part of their new construction project was building that pergola. Her going beyond the letter of the law is what Hashem used to save her life. " ועשית הישר והטוב בעיני יהוה למען ייטב לך "

Hilchos Nizkei Shcenim Part 2: Incredible Sheila straight from Bnei Brak??? No Nana for you?!? Hoarding in the hallway!!!

We are now in the shavuah shechal bo Tisha B'Av and it is incumbent upon us to try to feel some of the pain of the Shechina that is still in exile after so many years. Chazal tell us Hashem was forced, kavayachol , to destroy His own home because of our sins, primarily sinat chinam . And we are still preventing Him from building it. The Chafetz Chaim writes in his sefer Shmirat Halashon in the name of Rishonim , if baseless hatred caused the destruction of the built Beit HaMikdash , surely it will not be rebuilt so long as the hatred continues. The sefer Aleh Ayin writes, when Yaakov Avinu wanted to reveal to his children the date of the Final Geula , he told them האספו, which means you must gather together and be united in order for it to take place. There are people who don't talk to each other because of monetary disputes or because one insulted the other. The Peleh Yoetz writes, whatever the reason for the hatred, it is still called baseless because Hashem is really the one who brings about everything. If we got insulted or lost money, it's because it was the will of Hashem for us. And it is Hashem's will that we don't hate anyone, even in our hearts. There are family members who don't speak to each other, lo alenu . Even children who refuse to talk to their parents, Rachmana letzlan . The Final Redemption is in our hands. No one should ever say, what is my forgiving going to help, there are still thousands of people who hate? First of all , we don't know the value of each person's deeds and secondly, we are not obligated to do the entire job ourselves, but have to do at least our part. If the only incentive in forgiving people and uprooting the hatred would be that we are doing the will of Hashem and enabling Him to bring the Geula , it would be more than enough. But there's more. Hashem loves when we make peace so much, He also gives it side rewards in this world as well. Rabbi Yitzchak Zilberstein told a story about a woman whose name is Rachel who had a good job working in a certain children's center. One day, her friend Rivka was pleading with her to get her a job in the same center. She acquiesced and Rivka got hired. A few months later, Rachel was doing construction on her home which was close to where she worked, and so, from time to time, she would leave work for a few minutes to make sure the construction was being done properly. On one occasion, the manager of the center came to speak to Rachel while she was on one of those quick visits. The manager asked Rivka, "Where is Rachel?" Rivka told her the truth. The manager became furious and, when Rachel came back, she fired her saying, "You can't just leave work whenever you want." When Rachel found out that Rivka told her where she was, she became livid. She yelled at her saying, "This is the thank you I get for getting you this job? Couldn't you just have said that I stepped out for a minute?" From that day on, Rachel stopped talking to Rivka. She couldn't forgive her, especially since she got fired at a time that she needed the money so much to pay for her construction. Some time later, Rachel was on a bus traveling from Bnei Brak to Elad with a friend, and Rivka was on that same bus. Rivka went over to her to say hello, but Rachel completely ignored her. Rachel's friend asked her who that person was and why she ignored her. Rachel then told her the story. The friend said, "Please, do me a favor. I have a sister who's married for sixteen years without children. I've heard so many stories about the power of blessing that a person receives when she forgives. Please forgive Rivka now and then ask Hashem to give my sister a child. Rachel said, "I'm sorry, I can't forgive her. I can't even look at her." But as the bus ride progressed, Rachel began to think about it more. She herself had a 27 year old son who was having an extremely hard time in shidduchim . She told her friend, "I'm going to go right now and forgive her and then, b'ezrat Hashem, I'll pray that your sister has a child and that my son gets married. Rachel went over to Rivka, and they made up right there on the spot. Rabbi Zilberstein paused the story and said he has heard many stories like this, but each one of them is so special because it shows how much Hashem loves when His children forgive each other and make up. Baruch Hashem, this time as well, the yeshuot were not delayed in coming, Rachel's son got engaged within the next few months, and her friend's sister made a Brit Milah for a healthy baby boy on the 3 rd day of Cheshvan, which was within a year of her forgiving, less than 2 years ago from today. Let us end the fighting. Do it because it is the will of Hashem and then, b'ezrat Hashem we'll be able to enjoy the rebuilding of the Beit HaMikdash . Amen .

We begin the Fifth book of the Torah this week, thebook of Devarim. We have mentioned many times that the Rabbis teach us thatthis book made up primarily of Moshe Rabeynu's final speech and testament wasan optional book to be included at Moses discretion. The first three portionsfeature Moses narrating a brief history of the past four decades to those aboutto enter the land (see our short class on Deravim, memory and Tisha BeAb). אֵ֣לֶּה הַדְּבָרִ֗ים אֲשֶׁ֨רדִּבֶּ֤ר מֹשֶׁה֙ אֶל־כׇּל־יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל בְּעֵ֖בֶר הַיַּרְדֵּ֑ן בַּמִּדְבָּ֡רבָּֽעֲרָבָה֩ מ֨וֹל ס֜וּף בֵּֽין־פָּארָ֧ן וּבֵֽין־תֹּ֛פֶל וְלָבָ֥ן וַחֲצֵרֹ֖תוְדִ֥י זָהָֽב׃ The Rabbis teach us that these words refer to placesand hint at where the Jews sinned in the desert. But then Moses adds one moreplace, “Di Zahav.” There was once a gaon, philosopher and kabbalist,Rebbi Yehudah Aryeh of Modena z”l (1571-1648) who has a book called “Ari Nohem”and responsa. This gaon was graced by Hashem with a great talent for learning,his was literally a fulfilment of the passuk, “the words of his palate aresweet and he is all delight” [Shir HaShirim 5:16]. He lived in Venice andduring his time there was a huge bet knesset in the city which could seat athousand men. On Sunday the gabbaim came to the rav's home. Theysaid to him, “Kavod harav we have brought you something, not chas veshalom as apayment, for it is impossible to paid his honor for the words more preciousthan gold and fine gold, just a token due to ‘appreciation', we brought hishonor a gold watch!” The rav saw and accepted the watch. The gabbaim said tohim, “Kavod harav, his honor saw how much the congregation benefitted from hiswords on Shabbat, do us a favor for Hashem's sake and darshen before us alsothis coming Shabbat, this is a matter of meriting the many!” The rav responded,“I cannot! It is difficult for me to make the journey to you on Shabbat!” Thegabbaim said to him, “How hard is it? Since this Shabbat his honor already cameto us, if so, just like on one Shabbat his honor was able to walk, so shall hedo also on this coming Shabbat!” The rav answered them, “Fine, I will come alsothis Shabbat! One Shabbat and that will be enough!” On the next day, Sunday, again the gabbaim arrivedat the rav's home, they said to him, “Kavod harav the payment which his honoris entitled to has no bounds, but we have just brought a token gift, theyproduced an expensive chandelier and presented it to the rav.” Immediatelyafterwards they again pressured the rav that he come again on the next Shabbatto the bet knesset to darshan for a third time since “a three-ply cord Is noteasily severed” [see Kohelet 4:12] and the rav's words in a further derashah willcertainly make a tremendous impression! The gabbaim were astonished. “What's the connection?Why is the rav not prepared to accept the gifts?” The rav replied to them, “Iwill respond with a parable. A person entered a watch shop. He was interestedin a unique expensive gold watch, he paid the full price and immediately infront of the seller he took the watch and threw it on the floor smashing it athis feet! The shop keeper won't be angry with such a person, since he paid forthe watch, on the contrary perhaps now he will buy another watch! ‘The analogy is as follows. I see that I gavederashot in the bet knesset three times. Indeed, the congregation wereattentive and very much enjoyed them, but I didn't notice that the wordsinfluenced them to change their ways, and why is this? Because they know thatthe gabbaim took money from the congregation's funds, and bought gifts from it!If so, the feeling of the congregation is that they paid me for the derashot!And now they don't care to address things in a practical level! In contrast tothis, when I speak for free and the congregation hear the derashah and theyknow that I don't receive payment for it, they won't be brazened to despise thematters, the rav stands and makes every effort in his old age to darshan, surely,they will learn that they must change their ways!” I would like to share an alternative answer as wellbased on a reading of the Gemara in Berachot which tells us that We must clarify: What is the meaning of and DiZahav? The Sages of the school of Rabbi Yannai said that Moses said thefollowing before the Holy One, Blessed be He, to atone for Israel after the sinof the Golden Calf: Master of the Universe, because of the gold and silver thatyou lavished upon Israel during the exodus from Egypt until they said enough[dai]; it was this wealth that caused Israel to make the Golden Calf. A grandson of Michel Yehuda Lefkowitz zt”l,a Rosh Yeshiva of Ponovezh in Bnei Brak, bought a gift for his grandparents – abeautiful mirror nameplate for their front door, completely customized with theHebrew name “Lefkowitz” engraved – a standard household ornament in Israel.However, a few weeks went by and the front door remained bare. Lefkowitzdid not put up the nameplate. Rav Binyamin Kamenetzky, zt”l offers thefollowing explanation. Before the evil inclination, yetzer horah, became a partof man's inner being, man was pure. He was able to withstand the pressure anddesires for physical pleasure and possessions. But after Adam sinned by eatingfrom the Tree of Knowledge, the evil inclination became part of him, and theinfamous daily struggle of man began. Who is strong enough to say enough? Only greatrabbis? No! I give tremendous credit to our children whosacrifice much to make Eretz Yisrael their home. In many ways, life is moreluxurious, care free and monetarily richer in the United States, but they andthose who have made Aliyah have in essence said, “di Zahav” – enough. This issomething human beings are rarely capable of doing. They have reached back tothe soul within them which connects to the soul of Adam before the sin. Andthis deserves, blessing, protection and the promises of Mashiach. They shouldbe blessed in happiness as Adam and Chava in Gan Eden. They should be blessedwith parnassa, health, peace and prosperity and through their sacrifice andexample, Hashem should bring Eliyahu as He promised!

Video version of this interview: https://youtu.be/311WBTY7mrsTuvia Tenonbom is a character! He grew up in the Haredi enclave of Bnei Brak, which I've introduced you to in another video. He left the fold in his early twenties and became a bestselling author and journalist in Germany - with oft-hilarious, oft-controversial views. During covid, he was sent on an assignment to the insular Haredi enclaves of Israel, to the world of his childhood, to write about the experience. He was warned by many people that he'd be kicked out as soon as he arrived. But what happened left him surprised, humored, and a little bit in love with the Haredi world.The result of Tuvia's time in Bnei Brak is a book and a documentary, both of which I've experienced. The book is titled 'Careful, Beauties Ahead', and the documentary, which I saw at a small theater in Manhattan, is titled 'God Speaks Yiddish'. I don't believe you can watch the documentary anywhere except during limited screenings in various places, but you can get his book!

Linda Gradstein, Don Futterman and Noah Efron discuss two topics of incomparable importance and end with an anecdote about something in Israel that made them smile this week. Hear the Extra-Special, Special Extra Special on Patreon   —The Other War— The war with Hezbollah up north seems to be getting hotter and more deadly with each passing day. Will missiles rain down on Tel Aviv? And when can the nearly 100,000 evacuees from their homes near the Lebanese Border expect to go back home? —Spring of Despair— New polls show despair and pessimism of a sort Israelis have never known before. What do we do when more than 2/3 of Israelis are not optimistic about our future? —When Nothing Feels Right— For our most unreasonably generous Patreon supporters, in our extra-special, special extra discussion: Summer's here and the time is right for what exactly? Plus, Bnei Brak at 100, and more music of our times.

For a 20% discount on Rabbi Ashear's new book on Parnassah click the link below and enter Promo Code - Emunah20 https://www.artscroll.com/ Books/9781422640708.html The Gemara says in Masechet Yoma , daf 38, that a person cannot touch what is meant for someone else. Whatever Hashem decrees a person should get, he will get. If we take this Gemara to heart, it will save us a lot of potential anguish in life and will also give us motivation to always do what's right. Sometimes we have an opportunity to make a certain business deal or buy a certain house and somehow things fall apart. And then we start second-guessing what we did and think if we had acted differently, things would have turned out differently. This Gemara teaches us, what happened was what was meant to happen and no matter what we would have done, the same results would have occurred. A man from Bnei Brak related, he was on his way to a bris one morning, and he noticed a nice chair in great condition that was placed by the curb. He had the same exact chairs in his house and needed another one. As he was walking towards it, he noticed someone else who seemed interested also walking towards it. He said to himself, “If someone else wants it, I don't want to cause him anguish by taking it first even though I know that I saw it first.” So he continued walking and went to the bris. On his way back, he saw the chair was gone. He kept walking and then saw an old acquaintance of his. The acquaintance said he found a beautiful chair that was left for taking and he saved it for someone who might want it. He then offered it to him. They went into his building together and saw it was the same chair. That other guy never took it. The acquaintance said he had a car and would be happy to drive it to his apartment. The man was so happy to see whatever is meant for a person he will get. By giving in, he even saved himself the burden of having to carry it home in the hot summer. A principal in a Talmud Torah related that he was happy with all of the rebbes who taught in his school, except for one. That one somehow always forgot everything he was told to do and the principal wanted to fire him. But that rabbi's students learned so well and the parents really liked him, so the principal never brought himself to do it. Baruch Hashem, their yeshiva was growing and they needed a new building. One day, a very wealthy man came down to the yeshiva to take a tour and see if he wanted to donate to the new building project. The rebbe, who the principal was not so fond of, had made a deal with his class that if they all did well on a test, he would let them turn over their chairs in the classroom and drive them like cars and have a game of bumper cars with them. That day, when the wealthy man came down to the yeshiva, was the day that this rebbe let his class play bumper cars. When the principal brought the wealthy man to the classroom, he was horrified by what he saw: twenty boys riding their chairs on the floor across the room with the rebbe participating. He tried to excuse the scene to the wealthy man but he was completely humiliated over it. Later that day, the principal fired the rebbe saying this was the straw that broke the camel's back. The rebbe pleaded with him to reconsider saying he would be left with no parnasa with ten children at home. But the principal wouldn't hear it. A couple of days later, one of the principal's children fell and broke his leg. The next day, a different child ran through a glass door and got injured. Two days later, another child needed to go to the hospital. Then his wife broke her hand. The principal realized he did something wrong and told his rabbi what was happening. His rabbi asked him if he hurt another Jew recently, and he told him that he fired a rebbe. His rabbi told him to go back and apologize to this rebbe and rehire him. The rebbe accepted the apology, but in the meantime he already got a different job. A week later, the wealthy man called the principal and said he wanted to sponsor the entire building. He expressed his delight at how things were operating at the yeshiva and was especially impressed with the class that took a break and played bumper cars. He loves a yeshiva that has a loose atmosphere. The principal said afterward, “I see from here, we're going to get what we're meant to get even if it seems that we made an opposite hishtadlut than we were supposed to. And therefore, I have to work on myself and not get angry or annoyed when things don't go the way that I want.”

 A Tale of Two Sedarim: From Bnei B'rak to Lod, by Rav Yitzchak Etshalom Why wasn't R. Gamliel at the "Seder" in B'nei Brak?  Although we envision the evening of the Seder as being focused on the story of יציאת מצרים, there is another theme which holds a position of honor in the evening's discussion - the laws of Korban haPesach. Just as the famous "Seder" in Bnei Brak involved 5 of our greatest sages engaged in the recounting of the story of the Exodus all night, the Tosefta tells of a "parallel" seder led by R. Gamliel, where the focus of discussion all night was הלכות (קרבן) הפסח. The significance of the Korban, although relegated to commemorative status after the destruction of the Mikdash, still has a significant impact on the nature of the evening. We explore the dispute among Tannaim - and, later - Rishonim - as to whether the Korban Pesach needed to be eaten before midnight or could be eaten until dawn as a reflection of different approaches to understanding the underlying reason for the Korban and, essentially, the nature of the celebration of this most powerful of sanctified feasts. Source sheet >>

A lot of money needs to be spent to prepare for a holiday, especially a holiday like Pesach. Whether it's food, clothing, or matzot, the money adds up. Shulchan Aruch writes in siman 529 that we are supposed to honor the holiday, and when it comes to something that will bring more honor to the holiday, we should not be cheap about it. The Mishnah Berura explains, because parnasa is determined on Rosh Hashanah, but the money that we spend on Yom Tov is not included in that allotment. The more a person spends on Yom Tov , the more Hashem will give him to cover it, and the less he spends, the less he'll be given towards those Yom Tov expenses. Part of honoring the Yom Tov is spending with happiness rather than complaining about all of the expenses. Hashem has unlimited funds to help us pay for all of our Yom Tov needs and that is how we are supposed to feel about them. A man told, he began learning Hilchot Shabbat during all of his Shabbat meals. They learn two halachot at each meal and last year at one point, they came to a halacha regarding how Shabbat and Yom Tov expenses come back to the person. It said there, the reimbursement applied to four areas, Talmud Torah , Shabbat, Rosh Chodesh and Yom Tov and the Rabbis gave an acronym to remember them, TiShReY. One of the children in the family got very excited when hearing this halacha and he said to his father, “Is this true? Everything we spend comes back?” The father answered with steadfast emunah saying, “Absolutely, every last shekel we spend comes back.” The child then asked the father how Hashem gives the money back. The father said, “The Ribono Shel Olam has His ways of providing.” The child then asked, “Could it be that someone would just come over and put the money in your hand?” The father said, “Yes, that's possible.” A short while later, it was coming to Erev Pesach. This family had strengthened themselves in emunah and had bought everything they needed, relying on the open hand of Hashem. On Chol HaMoed , they went to the park for a short outing and a car stopped right near them with the driver calling to one of the children to come to him. The father saw what was happening and got suspicious. He went over to that man himself and asked what he needed. The man said he had an envelope to give him and he proceeded to hand it to him. It was obvious that there was a lot of money inside. At first, the father refused to accept it, asking why he would be giving him this envelope being that they didn't even know each other. The man explained that he and his wife put money aside to give to a family with children for the holiday. They decided they were going to go to Bnei Brak and give the envelope to the first family that they would meet. So he said, “You are the first family we met, so this money belongs to you. Please take it.” Considering the incredible series of events, the father understood this was HaKadosh Baruch Hu sending him the money, and so he took it happily and thanked the man. At home, they counted the money and, amazingly, saw that it equaled the exact amount that they had spent on Yom Tov expenses. Not only that, but for some inexplicable reason, on the envelope was written one word that explained everything - “Tishrey”. They were all in awe. Hashem is the One who gives us money and He told us whatever we spend on Yom Tov , He will reimburse us for. And therefore, we should spend with happiness knowing that we are honoring the holiday the proper way.

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Reciting the Maggid section of the Haggada at the Seder fulfills the Torah obligation to tell the story of Yetzi'at Mitzrayim (the Exodus), as the Torah writes, "Ve'higadeta Le'vincha Ba'yom Ha'hu" ("You shall tell your children on that day" – Shemot 13:8). The importance of this Mitzva is expressed in a passage in the Zohar which comments that anyone who tells the story of Yetzi'at Mitzrayim on the night of Pesach with sincere joy will one day rejoice together with the Shechina (Divine Presence) in the next world. Moreover, God Himself experiences immense joy, as it were, upon hearing the Jewish people telling this story, and He summons the Heavenly angels to come and listen to the story. The angels assemble to hear the story of the Exodus and rejoice over the great wonders and miracles performed by the Almighty in redeeming Am Yisrael, and they give praise to God for His great nation on earth that so joyfully celebrates His redemption. The Zohar concludes that we thereby increase God's power, so-to-speak, to deal kindly with Am Yisrael. (Hazon Ovadia page 56.) As mentioned earlier, the Torah introduces this obligation by instructing, "You shall tell your children on that day…" Thus, the essential obligation is for parents to tell the story to their children. Ironically, in many families the precise opposite occurs: children are encouraged to share with their parents some ideas and insights that they learned about the Haggada. Although it is admirable for children to share their knowledge, it is the parents who bear the obligation to teach their children. Furthermore, in many homes the children go to sleep immediately after asking the questions of the "Ma Nishtana." It must be emphasized that the "Ma Nishtana" consists only of the questions; the parents must then provide the answer, clearly, patiently, and in accordance with each child's level of understanding. The father must clearly explain to the child the paragraph of "Avadim Hayinu," as well as the section of "Pesach, Matza U'marror," where the reasons for these three Mitzvot are explained. If a parent sees that the child is falling asleep or losing interest before he reaches the section of "Pesach, Matza U'marror," then he should quickly explain to him that section so that the child will hear the explanation of these Mitzvot. The obligation to tell the story of Yetzi'at Mitzrayim requires doing just that: to talk about the events of Benei Yisrael's subjugation, the plagues, the Exodus, and the splitting of the sea. One should focus on the Midrashim relevant to these events, and not on other topics upon which many people make the mistake of elaborating during the Seder. One should not only focus his attention on singing "Dayeinu" or offering insights into the introductory sections of "Ma Nishtana," the four sons, "Ve'hi She'ameda," and so on. Nor is this the time for reconciling contradictory rulings of the Rambam or explaining complex, intricate passages in Masechet Pesachim. The Mitzva of "Sippur Yetzi'at Mitzrayim" requires spending time at the Seder discussing the events of the Exodus, and this should be the point of our focus at the Seder. Indeed, the Haggada tells of the Rabbis in Bnei-Brak who spent the entire night telling about the Exodus; this shows that there is enough material relevant to Yetzi'at Mitzrayim itself to occupy a person for an entire night. Of course, one who so wishes is certainly encouraged to remain awake after the Seder to discuss the many other aspects of Pesach; the Seder itself, however, should be devoted to the story of the Exodus. It must also be emphasized that properly fulfilling this Mitzva requires preparation. Just as we prepare for the other Mitzvot of Pesach by cleaning the home, purchasing wine and Matza, cleaning the Marror, and so on, so must we prepare for "Sippur Yetzi'at Mitzrayim" by studying commentaries on Maggid before the Seder. The Ritva (Rabbi Yom Tov Ashbili, Spain, 1250-1330) writes that one person may recite the Haggada on behalf of the others at the Seder, who fulfill their obligation by carefully listening to the leader's recitation. This ruling is based on the Halachic principle of "Shomei'a Ke'oneh," which allows for fulfilling one's obligation to recite a given text by listening to somebody else's recitation. This was indeed the practice of the Gaon of Vilna (Rabbi Eliyahu of Vilna, 1720-1797). Our practice, however, is for everybody to recite the Haggada in unison, with the leader offering explanations and insights at various points during the recitation. (Hazon Ovadia page 47.) The obligation to read Maggid applies to both men and women. (Hazon Ovadia page 52.) Although the authorities debate the question of whether women are obligated on the level of Torah obligation or Rabbinic enactment, all agree that they, too, must recite or hear the Haggada. One must ensure not to begin reading Maggid until nightfall on Pesach eve, or 45 minutes after sundown (in the New York City area). If one began reading Maggid before nightfall, he must repeat it after that point. One must be particularly careful in this regard in years when Daylight Savings Time begins before Pesach, in which case the Seder begins quite late; one may nevertheless not begin reading the Haggada before nightfall. (Hazon Ovadia page 47.) One should not lean or recline during the reading of Maggid. Instead, it should be read in an upright position, and with a sense of awe and reverence. The reading of Maggid should be completed before Chatzot (midnight as defined by Halacha). This means that one should recite the concluding Beracha of "Asher Ge'alanu" before Chatzot. BeDiavad, if he finished after Chazot, he still may make the Beracha of "Asher Ge'alanu". After the Seder, one should continue learning and discussing the Exodus and the laws of Pesach until he feels the need to go to sleep.

Rav Moshe Feinstein, zatzal, writes in his sefer , Igrot Moshe , that the main stress of a parent when it comes to chinuch of children should be in emunah in Hashem. The children should be taught that everything they get is a present from Hashem. Then, they'll develop a love for Hashem as well as their parents who are Hashem's messengers to give them. And then they'll listen, with love, to whatever their parents tell them to do because they will know that's what Hashem wants from them. And perhaps we could add, when a child develops a love for Hashem, the child will be able to trust Hashem when he doesn't get what he wants. And he'll also be happy to sacrifice for Hashem when the time calls for it. A parent has the ability to train his child to always be happy, no matter what situation the child is in, if he could successfully train him with the proper emunah. I heard a story about a certain boy's elementary school in Bnei Brak whose principal promised them a special trip for whoever would be an excellent student for an entire month. The day came for that trip and the children were so excited to go. They were going to go to a certain lake and swim there, and it was known to be a very fun place. When they finally arrived, the principal went to pay and he heard a lot of noise coming from the lake. He saw there were girls there already. The rabbi told the attendants of the lake that they booked this lake, and they said they needed privacy. The attendants said yes, they were going to tell the girls to stay on one side and give them the other side. The rabbi said that was unacceptable. The attendants apologized and said there was nothing else they could do, the other group had just arrived a half hour before. The rabbi got back onto the bus and told the children what was going on and they became very upset when they heard. They all began complaining, saying they earned the trip and they didn't want to leave. The rabbi didn't know what to do. There were no other options. Suddenly, the quietest boy from the sixth grade asked the rabbi if he could have the microphone to speak to everyone. The rabbi gave it to him and he said, “Listen everyone, why are we not going to the lake right now? Because we are following what Hashem wants from us. We should feel so proud of ourselves for doing the will of Hashem. Let's all sing Ashrenu, ma tov chelkenu .” And he started singing the tune, and the entire bus began singing louder and louder, and they traveled back to Bnei Brak happy with their avodat Hashem rather than crying over the missed trip. The rabbi was so impressed with this boy. He called the boy's mother to tell her what he did and then asked her if she herself trained her children this way. She said that recently, they traveled for a very long distance to do certain errands and they were out in the heat for a long time. Before they were going to head back and catch the bus, the children asked if they could each buy a cold drink. The mother, seeing how hot the children were, allowed all six of her children to pick out a drink from the store and they all got the same drink which was quite expensive, especially on their tight budget. On the bus, before they started drinking, one of the children noticed that there was an ingredient that many hashgacha agencies did not approve of and only a couple would actually give hashgacha to it. The mother, seeing how badly they wanted that drink, told them, “You could rely on the hechsher to drink if you really want, but if you want to be strict and not drink it, it would make Hashem so proud of you and He would surely give you many berachot .” The oldest child said, “I'm not going to drink it,” and each of the children followed. When they got home that night, she told her husband what their children did. He was so proud of them. They all started dancing to that song, Ashrenu , ma tov chelkenu . The father made them all feel so special and said, “You should all be proud of yourselves for bringing so much satisfaction to Hashem.” He also told them he was going to take them to the store so they could each buy a special candy for what they did. This is how this boy learned to have that attitude. And that inspiration that he got was used to inspire dozens of other children that day when they couldn't go to the lake. With the right chinuch , a child could always be happy, as well as feel accomplished knowing that he is bringing satisfaction to Hashem.

Yahrtzeit Yomi #949!! ו אדר Rav Dovid Povarsky רב יהושע דוד ב״ר שלום ראש ישיבת פוניבז׳ (1902 - 1999) Special 25th Yahrtzeit Edition!! ---------------------------------------------- Today, Thursday, 6 Adar, marks the 25th Yahrtzeit of Rav (Yehoshua) Dovid Povarsky ZTL, Rosh Yeshiva of the Ponovezh Yeshiva in Bnei Brak. In his youth, Rav Dovid was a close talmid of Rav Aaron Kotler ZTL in the Slutzk Yeshiva, and later joined the Mirrer Yeshiva where he developed his lifelong connection to the Mashgiach, Rav Yerucham Levovitz ZTL. After World War I, he married and moved to Baranovitch where he became a chavrusa of the Rosh Yeshiva, Rav Elchonon Wasserman ZTL. Rav Dovid's reputation spread, and he received an invitation to join the staff of the noted Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin, which he ultimately declined, preferring instead to continue learning and teaching in Baranovitch. For more than half a century, Rav Dovid served as Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivas Ponovezh in Bnei Brak, where he taught and guided thousands of worthy disciples, who staunchly continue the legacy of the venerated Rosh Yeshiva until today. For several decades, Rav Dovid's daily routine was to awaken at 3 AM, and to walk from his home in Bnei Brak to the nearby Ponovezh Yeshiva, where he would learn Torah until Shacharis. Nothing would impede him from this regimen; neither inclement weather, nor declining health. Like a disciplined soldier in the royal guard, Rav Dovid maintained his post, studying assiduously for a four-hour, uninterrupted stretch, come what may. In his later years, after he had slipped and fallen twice, his family, concerned for his safety, arranged for two of his closest Talmidim to escort him daily. Once, during a very stormy, windy night, while walking to the Yeshiva, Rav Dovid remarked to his escorts: “Heint der Alter hut mir gekummen mevaker tzu zayn (The Alter came to visit me today)”. (The Talmidim instinctively assumed that one of the great Mashgiachim from the Lithuanian Yeshivos must have appeared to Rav Dovid in a dream.) “Fuhn Kelm? Udder fuhn Slabodka? (Was it the Alter of Kelm? Or the Alter of Slabodka?)”, one of the escorts asked. “Nayn, nayn” corrected Rav Dovid, “nit fuhn der sort Alter (not that type of Alter)”. “‘Der Alter' who visited me this morning was much older than both of those”, remarked Rav Dovid with a slight smile. “This ‘Alter', although referred to by our sages as an ‘old stupid king', can actually be quite cunning.” The talmidim henceforth understood that the “Alter” to which the Rosh Yeshiva was referring, was to none other than the Yetzer Hara himself!! Realizing that there was much to learn from this seemingly casual exchange, one of the Talmidim asked, “What did the Yetzer Hara think he could accomplish by visiting the Rosh Yeshiva in the predawn hours? Couldn't he have found a more suitable acquaintance to visit with??” “Lummer dir eppis masbir zayn - let me explain,” said the Rosh Yeshiva. “Today, the Yetzer Hara suggested that I stay in bed for just an additional five minutes, based on an extremely logical premise: the entire world is now enjoying a sound, uninterrupted sleep. Wouldn't it be appropriate to heed the dictum of Chazal: ׳אל תפרוש מן הציבור׳ - ‘Never detach yourself from the congregation'? He even reasoned that it would be improper to rise from bed, as that would constitute a violation of the aforementioned teaching of Chazal!! [See Whatsapp for remainder] --------------------------------------------------------- To dedicate or sponsor, please contact 917-841-5059. Sponsorships can be paid by Zelle to the same number. First come, first served. Monthly sponsorships are $540. Weekly sponsorships are $180. Daily sponsorships are as follows: Dedications (l'Zecher Nishmas, Zechus shidduch/refuah/yeshuah, etc.) are $50. Sponsorships (fliers, advertising, promotions, additional links, etc.) are $100. The cost to request and sponsor a Tzaddik that is not included on the Yahrtzeit Yomi schedule is $180.

In this *Special Episode* HaGaon HaRav Moshe Hillel Hirsch Shlit"a, Rosh Hayeshiva of Yeshivas Slabodka in Bnei Brak, delivers divrei hisorerus to bney hayeshiva.

We say every morning in the Birchot Hashachar that Hashem is מכין מצעדי גבר . Simply, in this beracha we are thanking Hashem for the legs He gives us to walk upon. The mefarashim tell us we are also thanking Hashem here for guiding our every step to the places that we need to be in. Every step we take is b'hashgacha peratit . A man told me, 30 years ago he lived in Iran and they were making a zikaron on the yahrtzeit of his grandfather. There were very few Jews in the neighborhood, and they only managed to get nine men. Just before it was time to say Kaddish , there was a knock at the door. It was a man asking them if they knew the older gentleman that he found lost in the streets. They did not know him, but they said they would take care of it. After asking him a few questions they discovered this older man had been a friend of their grandfather's. He lived miles from there and somehow got lost and ended up right in front of their house. Someone had noticed him and knocked on their door for help. Baruch Hashem, they returned him to his family, but first they were able to say Kaddish as he completed their minyan . This was Hashem guiding this gentleman to help his friend's neshama in Gan Eden . A few years ago a family from Bnei Brak went on a picnic one day on Chol HaMoed. The children went into the river there and had a lot of fun. After they finished, they walked back to their car, but they couldn't find the keys. The father and one of the boys walked all the way back to the place they made their picnic to search for them there. When they arrived, the father jumped into the river and pulled out a child that had just fallen in. He saved the child's life. Minutes later, the child's parents ran looking for him and discovered what had just happened. The father and son then searched the entire area for the keys but couldn't find them. They went back to the car and saw the car running with everyone inside. The wife said, one of the children had the keys in his pocket and didn't realize. That is when this father realized the whole thing was set up by Hashem. They thought they lost the keys, just so that he should go back there and save the child. A man told, this past Motzaei Shabbat, after he and his family finished eating their Melava Malkah they went upstairs for the night. While upstairs, the man realized his phone was on low battery and his charger was downstairs. It wasn't so necessary to charge it right away, but he decided to go back down and get it. When he went downstairs, he saw his entire kitchen being flooded with water. He opened the cabinet under the sink and saw one valve gushing water at a rapid pace. He yelled for help and his wife came running with towels. He managed to close the water and reconnect the valve. They spent the next hour drying the kitchen from the flood that just five minutes of the leak caused. If they would not have discovered that leak, the next morning, their entire downstairs would have been ruined. This man said he doesn't remember the last time he came downstairs after going up for the night. On this occasion, Hashem directed him back down the steps to save all his furniture, appliances, rugs and everything else that would have been ruined in that flood. A man told me, this past Shabbat, someone had a heart attack in his shul and they weren't able to get a pulse. When they went out to the guard to call Hatzalah, a community doctor was walking by just at that minute. He ran in and revived the man and saved his life. This doctor is never in that area. He was walking back from attending his grandson's reading of the Torah. Hashem is always guiding our footsteps. When we thank Him every morning for giving us legs to walk upon, we also need to thank Him for guiding our every step, every second of the day.

A man told me he was involved in negotiating with a certain broker trying to get a mortgage on a house. After a back and forth for many weeks, the man saw that the broker wasn't going to get him the rates he wanted, so he told him he is going to have to look elsewhere. The broker felt bad because he was involved for many hours on the project, and he felt he was entitled to compensation. The man claimed that this is the nature of the business, and he felt he didn't have to pay the broker. He asked his rabbi what to do. The rabbi told him, “It might be true that you are not obligated to pay, but in this instance, if you pay to keep the peace and make him happy, you'll only gain as a result.” The students of Rabbi Nechunya ben Hakanah asked their Rabbi what he did to merit such a long life. He told them ותרן בממוני הייתי – I was very easy going when it came to money. The Gemara says Iyov was easy going when it came to money. When he used to pay his workers and didn't have the exact amount, he would tell them, “You keep the extra.” For that mida , he merited to become extremely wealthy. The sefer Derech Emunah pointed out, we see from these statements of Chazal that if someone is easy going when it comes to his money, it is a segula for long life and prosperity, especially when it is done to avoid machloket . In Yerushalayim , there was a taxi driver named Yechezkel Sander. He was a man who lived by the principles of emunah, someone who constantly spoke about emunah. One day, when he dropped off a passenger at the Shaareh Tzedek hospital, a man approached his car asking if he would take him to Bnei Brak. That was a taxi driver's dream – a long drive which meant less looking for work and more money. After they agreed on a price, the man saw another taxi pulling up with a more spacious and comfortable interior. He said, “Wow, I really need to sleep on this journey, that other taxi would suit me much better. Do you mind if I go with him instead?” Obviously, any taxi driver would mind giving up a job like that, but Yechezkel said, “I honestly do not mind at all. Kol hakavod , go and enjoy your rest. My parnasa comes from Hashem and in whatever way he wants to give it, I fully accept.” Within 30 seconds, another man came to his car and asked him if he would drive him to Bet Shemesh, wait outside until he got together some belongings and then drive him back to the hospital. That job was much more lucrative and gave Yechezkel even more chizuk in his emunah. Yes, he could have told that first man, “It's not right what you are doing. You agreed to come with me.” But he knew the man didn't want to come, and he knew it would only cause strife. So instead, he was mivater and he only gained from it. Another man said he once took a taxi from the Tel Shomer hospital to Bnei Brak. He told the driver he wanted to go to a street named Rav Kook. The driver gave him a price and the man was delighted as it was a very cheap fare. When they were approaching Bnei Brak, the driver said, “Which street?” The man said, “The one I told you, Rav Kook.” The driver then exclaimed, “What? Rav Kook? That's deep into Bnei Brak. I thought you were going to the beginning of Bnei Brak. To go to Rav Kook is another twenty shekel.” But then the driver said, “It's okay, I told you a price, I'm going to keep it. If I thought I heard you say the beginning of Bnei Brak, it's min haShamayim that I gave you that price. Anyway, Hashem is the one who gives me my parnasa .” The driver turned onto a street called Rechov Devora and, all of a sudden, he stopped the car, got out and on the side of the road, sitting there, was a 20 shekel bill. He picked it up, came back into the car and said, “See? I didn't need to ask you for more money. Hashem gave it to me directly.” Avoiding disputes over money is a very virtuous mida . Hashem is the one who provides our money and when we give in for peace, He'll only give us more. It won't always be obvious, but at some point, Hashem will bless us for our act of vatranut .

Video version of this interview here. Comments are not enabled on podcasts so please leave comments on Youtube.In this long-form interview, I talk to Eli Benedict about his life story. Eli grew up in the Hasidic community in Bnei Brak, Israel, and later left the fold. He remains deeply engaged with the Hasidic community and has a tremendous passion for Yiddish language, literature, old books and community. He is the CEO of YungYiddish and he runs the channel for the @LeagueforYiddish .I have brought Eli to you on my channel before. Most notably, when he showed me around his hometown of Bnei Brak, just a few days before the horrific October 7 attack. That video is my only content from outside of New York City (for now!) I also shared some shorter videos with Eli, and one longer interview we did after the October 7 attack.I went into this interview knowing that Eli has warm, complicated feelings for his community and that he was willing to speak candidly and honestly about the world he comes from. I did not know what Eli would share and it was quite a difficult interview to have and process. I thank Eli for sharing and hope you will all listen to his story with open minds.Eli's story is another story that presents a perspective on the Hasidic education issue. My interviews on the subject create a mosaic with many different narratives. Hopefully, watching them all provides a more complicated, nuanced, and meaningful overview of the situation than one may find when reading the news.Here are some more of my videos on #hasidiceducationA trip down memory lane: my own Hasidic education || https://youtu.be/ZRhOovJLcBYGerry Albarelli, who taught English to Hasidic boys || https://youtu.be/lR7UL9b_xNUEli Spitzer, a Hasidic boys' school headmaster || https://youtu.be/li3y_lwwIywMoshe Krakowski, who studied Hasidic boys education || https://youtu.be/IjVyVP7KA8sPearl, a Hasidic mother who educated her son's in this system || https://youtu.be/V05SsdMGqkg?t=697 Izzy Posen, former student || https://youtu.be/SeZL920Eae8?si=-VCli1etsg4MJVtDAll my longform content is also available in podcast version.

After losing his family, community and yeshiva in Ponovezh, Lithuania during the Holocaust, Rav Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman (1886-1969), the Ponovezh Rav, endeavored to rebuild what was lost in the Land of Israel. He was a dreamer who carried out his vision with a zeal and energy which seemed superhuman. His crowning achievement was rebuilding the beloved yeshiva he lost in his hometown, by establishing the Ponovezh Yeshiva on a dusty hill on the outskirts of the small settlement of Bnei Brak. Today considered one of the key components of the flourishing postwar Torah world in Israel, the sprawling campus is a vibrant testimony to the Ponovezh Rav's determination and perseverance. When it opened its doors at the end of 1943 with seven students, he dreamed of a building which would one day be home to hundreds of students. Rav Shmuel Rozovsky was hired as rosh yeshiva and Rav Avraham Abba Grossbard as mashgiach. The yeshiva soon expanded and Rav David Povarsky and later Rav Elazar Menachem Shach were added to the yeshiva faculty. The Ponovezh Rav felt that his energetic building campaigns were the expression of a living Holocaust memorial, as the Torah world of Lithuania would experience a rebirth in the Ponovezh Yeshiva, and its affiliate institutions. Listen to a previous episode exploring the life and accomplishments of the Ponovezh Rav: https://jsoundbites.podbean.com/e/builder-dreamer-the-unstoppable-vision-of-the-ponevezher-rav/   Cross River, a leading financial institution committed to supporting its communities, is proud to sponsor Jewish History Soundbites. As a trusted partner for individuals and businesses, Cross River understands the importance of preserving and celebrating our heritage. By sponsoring this podcast, they demonstrate their unwavering dedication to enriching the lives of the communities in which they serve. Visit Cross River at https://www.crossriver.com/   Subscribe to Jewish History Soundbites Podcast on: PodBean: https://jsoundbites.podbean.com/ or your favorite podcast platform Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter or Instagram at @Jsoundbites For sponsorship opportunities about your favorite topics of Jewish history or feedback contact Yehuda at:  yehuda@yehudageberer.com

Biale Rebbe of Bnei Brak and Alan of Woodland Hills

It says in the Midrash that the geula from Mitzrayim was in the zechut of achdut , a special brotherly love between Moshe and Aharon which influenced Klal Yisrael . We were not saved from the decree of Haman until the people united with each other. The Shechina dwells only where there is achdut . This is one of the criteria necessary to attain the final Geula as well. Hashem, the Torah and the Jewish People are all one. The Torah is supposed to be something that unites us, not Heaven forbid cause rifts. If we will act the way the Torah wants us to act, we will automatically nullify all the hatred. I heard a beautiful story which combines the ways of Torah and achdut . Yehuda, who learns in a kollel in Bnei Brak, was driving on the highway a few months ago when he saw a family standing outside their car. He stopped to ask what was wrong. Yaakov, the head of the family, was standing with his wife and young daughter and Yaakov said they had run out of gas. Yehuda said it would be his pleasure to go to a gas station and bring back some gasoline for them. Yaakov was very appreciative, saying they had been there for nearly a half an hour without anyone stopping to help them. Yehuda went and returned fifteen minutes later with the gasoline and handed the container to Yaakov. Yaakov thanked Yehuda and asked him how much money he owed him. Yehuda said, “I just did a mitzvah and I don't take money for mitzvot. It's my zechut.” Yaakov offered money again and Yehuda made it clear he was not going to accept it under any circumstances. Yaakov was touched by the gesture. He took Yehuda to the back of his car and showed him a bumper sticker that said something to the sort of “Trample all charedi Jews.” He said, “I had this on my car for two years, and now, the first time I have an interaction with a charedi I see how beautiful you are.” He apologized to Yehuda and then ripped the sticker off his car and ripped it up. Yehuda asked Yaakov where he was from. Yaakov replied that he lived in Kibbutz Be'eri near Gaza. Yehuda was not familiar with that particular location, but he said he wanted to keep a connection with him, so he took down Yaakov's phone number. Two weeks later, Yehuda called Yaakov, reminding him of their encounter. Yaakov was so happy to hear from him. Yehuda told him a short story about Shabbat that he wanted Yaakov to relate to his young daughter. Yaakov loved the story and said he would tell her. From then on, Yehuda called Yaakov weekly every Friday to tell him a story that he could relate to his family. One Friday, Yaakov said to Yehuda, “I want to understand a little more. Aren't you guys so bored on Shabbat? What do you do all day if you are not able to use your phones or go anywhere?” Yehuda told Yaakov that Shabbat was the best day of the week. He said he wanted to invite him at a future point to come to his home and experience Shabbat with him. Initially Yaakov said Bnei Brak was off limits, but after some coaxing, he finally agreed to come. Yehuda asked his rabbi what he thought the best Shabbat would be to invite him as it was coming close to the time of the Yamim Noraim. His Rabbi said the best day would be Shabbat Simchat Torah. Besides for the Shabbat experience, he would also see the festive dancing and love between everyone. Yehuda told his rabbi, on Simchat Torah he was planning on going to his parents in Sderot. The rabbi said to him, “maybe if you would invite your parents they would want to come to you. Then Yaakov could see your kibbud Av v'Em as well.” So Yehuda asked his parents if they wanted to come and they were delighted to. When that Shabbat came around, Yaakov and his family, as well as Yehuda's parents both came to Yehuda in Bnei Brak. By the time the Shabbat ended, it became apparent that Yaakov and his family had their lives spared. Yehuda's parents, as well, lived in a place that got bombed and their lives were saved too. Besides for the amazing hashgacha peratit here, the beauty of the story is the unity which took place. B'ezrat Hashem, we will all unify and love each other like brothers, no matter what level of religion anybody is on.

The pasuk says in Kohelet, את הכל עשה יפה בעתו גם את העלם נתן בלבם , and Chazal are doresh the missing vav in the word העלם /world to mean that Hashem hid from Man something very important about the world. He makes our hearts feel that this world is the main purpose of Creation. Rabbi Menashe Reisman gave a mashal of a movie producer with great wisdom who is able to make his audience feel that what is happening on the screen is real. And during different parts of the movie, their emotions constantly change. At one point, they are very afraid. At another point, they start crying. And then they are calm and happy. Kavayachol , that is how Hashem made this world. People think that everything depends on their positions and status in the world. They think it is worth it to invest all their time in building themselves up in this world. It seems as though wealth and honor are what really matter the most. It's only through the Torah that we are able to understand that this world is just a vestibule, a path to get to the Next World. One day, Hashem is going to turn the lights on, and we will see with our own eyes what we thought was so important was really הבל הבלים . The only thing that matters is our performance of Torah and mitzvot. In this world, there are a lot of questions. It seems like bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people. Why is this person financially successful and that one isn't? Why is this person married and that one is not? Why does this one have children and that one doesn't? All of these are very strong questions in the reality that the main purpose is for this world. But once someone knows there is a much bigger picture and this world is just a drop in the bucket compared to the Eternal World, then the questions aren't so strong anymore. Rabbi Avraham Genichovsky used to pray in a vatikin minyan every day in Bnei Brak. One day, out of nowhere, right in the middle of the day, one of the members of the shul passed away. He wasn't old and he wasn't sick. And at the funeral, someone asked the Rabbi a question, he said, “It says in Chazal if someone prays vatikin he will not get damaged that day. And so how did this man pass away suddenly on a day that he prayed vatikin ?” Rabbi Avraham looked at him and said, “You think leaving this world to go to the Real World is called damage?” And he gave this person a mashal . He said, “Imagine somebody paid top dollar to get a first-class ticket on a flight from, let's say, America to Israel. What if the flight would get in two and a half hours earlier than expected? Would the person complain saying it's not fair, he deserved more time in first class? He would be happy that he arrived at the real destination much quicker. Someone who did his job in this world properly does not consider it damaging to get to the Real World earlier than expected.” Those who truly know what this world is about do not have so many questions. The Shomer Emunim writes in his Ma'amar Emunah in perek 7, one of the tikkunim necessary to be made before the Mashiach comes is in the area of emunah. If a person will have simple emunah, he can bring about a tikkun for the entire generation. His emunah will stop many tragedies from taking place. Imagine if someone would have a lot of questions about the difficulties he is going through and instead of complaining, he wholeheartedly accepts the will of Hashem and continues to do his avodah happily. The tikkun he would make would be unparalleled. We are now living in the End of Days. We can all contribute to making the ultimate tikkun in emunah by purifying our hearts and trusting in Hashem. B'ezrat Hashem, that will give us the zechut to merit the great light of Mashiach bekarov .

Episode Release Notes: Braving Business in Israel In the Aftermath of October 7, 2023. Welcome to a different kind of episode of "Braving Business." The episode where "braving" takes on an outsized meaning, extending beyond the business realm to life, perseverance, and resilience. On October 7, 2023, an unimaginable tragedy unfolded in Israel. A terrorist act orchestrated by Hamas claimed the lives of 1,400 Israelis. This incident, which snatched away hundreds of young souls attending a peace-promoting musical concert, has had profound impacts not only emotionally and socially but also on the nation's economic fabric. With daily rocket attacks continuing, compelling citizens to their safety shelters, and hundreds of thousands of individuals called for reserve duties, the Israeli economy is facing an unprecedented halt. Predictions point to a depression-scale dip in Israel's GDP. But beyond the numbers, it's the enormous human and psychological toll that is most heart-wrenching.Today's Guests: As we delve into understanding the ramifications of this tragedy, we have with us Eytan Avriel, co-founder of Israel's renowned business newspaper, "The Marker," and a respected figure in Israeli journalism. Eitan's journey from the Israeli Navy to becoming a leading voice in Israel's business ecosystem provides a unique perspective on the current situation. Accompanying Eitan is Daniel Dayan, the founder of Step-In, a LinkedIn Consulting firm. Apart from being a lecturer, workshop facilitator, and daily content creator, Daniel -- who is an Orthodox Jew -- also heads the high-tech practice in the EXIT career center located in Bnei Brak, near Tel Aviv. ---Discussion Highlights: Eitan and Daniel's firsthand experience and initial reactions to the October 7th tragedy.- An inside view into the changed atmosphere and mood of the Israeli society and business world post the attack.- Forecasts on the economic repercussions - short-term and long-term.- The commendable unity displayed by ordinary people, businesses and organizations in supporting the victims, along with the fear of speaking out among venture backed Israeli high tech firms.- Addressing the mental health repercussions on the workforce and society.- Insights on government interventions, both current and proposed, to rejuvenate the economy, and on the lack of confidence in government among Israelis in the aftermath of the attack.- The interplay of money, power, and ethics in such times, with a special note for international entrepreneurs wanting to support Israel.- Daniel's gritty vision for the future, drawing from Israel' and the Jewish People's historic resilience.- A concluding message to the global community on the indomitable spirit of Israel and its citizens.---We urge our listeners to join us in this soul-stirring discussion. Let's come together in understanding, support, and hope.Thank you for being with us in this journey of "Braving Business" where, today, braving life itself is the underlying theme.

One of our main jobs in this world is to bring glory to Hashem. Hashem wants all of His children to follow Torah and mitzvot. And when His close ones act the way they are supposed to, it will automatically inspire the rest of His children to follow. Rabbi Binyamin Pruzanski told two of such examples. The first was about Sruly who was returning from America to Israel via Rome. As he was waiting in the airport to check his luggage in, he noticed a group of irreligious Israeli students, who had been studying in a medical school in Italy, waiting to check in as well. One of those students had a bag that was overweight. He was trying to argue with the attendant that it was just a few pounds over, but he wasn't getting anywhere. His friends, as well as the other people behind him were getting impatient, telling him to move to the side and just pay the overage. Sruly decided to help out. He went over to that man, named Itai, and said to him, “I have extra room in my suitcase. You can put some of your things in my bag and when we get to Israel, you can take them back.” At first Itai refused, not wanting to take help from a chassidic Jew. But Sruly insisted and finally Itai agreed. In the middle of the flight, Itai approached Sruly to properly thank him and then asked him if he had tefillin that he could borrow. Sruly said, “Yes, of course,” and took them out from the overhead compartment. Then, Itai asked if he could show him how to put them on. He said, “I want to tell you, I have never put on tefillin in my life. When I was stuck at that counter and everybody else was getting aggravated at me, nobody cared except you. I said to myself, if you could help a total stranger like that, it must have been from the Torah that you follow. I want to know more about it and I would love it if you could help me.” Sruly made a kiddush Hashem by doing a very simple chesed . He brought glory to the Name of Hashem and brought one of His children closer to Him. The second story was about Reuven from Bnei Brak. He was looking to wave down a taxi and finally spotted one. When he got into the back seat, he noticed something unusual about the driver. He was a young man with a trimmed beard wearing a suit and tie. He looked like he was on the way to a wedding. Reuven couldn't contain his curiosity and asked him why he was all dressed up. The man said he actually got married the night before. Reuven said with astonishment, “What? A chatan is not supposed to work right after his wedding!” The man explained, he was over his head in debt and couldn't go a day without work. Both he and his wife came from poor families and they had to come up with all the money themselves for the wedding. Reuven never heard of a chatan so poor that he had to go to work the day after his wedding. Determined to do something to help, he wrote out a check for 1000 shekels and handed it to the driver. He said, “Please, take this as a wedding present and promise me that after you drop me off, you'll go straight home to your wife.” Overjoyed by the thoughtfulness of his passenger, the driver assured Reuven he would do just that. A few days later, Reuven received a letter from the wife of that driver. She wrote how she waited so long to get married but was struggling now so much with the financials that it was ruining everything. She added that when her husband left for work the day after their wedding, she burst into tears. But then, when he came early with the money that he got, it changed everything. When she was told that the one who gave him the money was a religious Jew, she was so impressed that she accepted upon herself to light the Shabbat candles and keep Shabbat. We have no idea of the impact we can make when we go out of our way to help somebody else. Especially when our actions give off the impression of how beautiful the Torah and mitzvot really are.

In this exclusive interview, renowned Charedi Israeli journalist Yanki Farber described the huge shifts happening in Bnei Brak and other communities, following the Hamas attack. Yanki explained that the unspeakable and unprecedented October 7th attack sent a ripple effect throughout the Charedi community. Charedim may be ready to embrace the IDF like never before. He also provided new details and analysis about the attack, which were revealed or discovered in the past few days. Yanki discussed the following: How are Charedim coping with this tragedy? Why is this attack impacting Charedim personally much more than past attacks? Will the tremendous unity last? Will the attack prevent the Knesset from passing a law exempting Yeshiva students from the draft? Will thousands of Charedim enlist in the army in coming days? Which Gedolim do the Litvishe Charedim look to for guidance right now? Why did Charedim begin to read (kosher) internet and news sites during COVID?

Last week, I traveled to Israel to meet with Eli Benedict for a tour of his Hasidic hometown in Bnei Brak, Israel. Our time together was wonderful. And then the vicious, shocking attacks came, just after I got home. In this spontaneous interview, I check in with Eli to hear what's going on with him, with his community, and of course, with the larger situation in Israel. Eli had to leave the call suddenly when a siren went off, but he's fine. Stay tuned for more content with Eli. עם ישראל חי Eli Benedict is a researcher in Yiddish, he co-runs Yugn Yiddish and the Youtube channel @LeagueforYiddish.For video version click here.

One of the areas that we are tested in on a daily basis is parnasa -how we earn it and what we do with it. If someone is blessed with a lot of money, he has one type of test – recognizing it's all a gift from Hashem, staying humble, giving charity. If someone is struggling with parnasa , he has a different type of test – recognizing that that is also from Hashem for his best, staying close to Hashem during his struggle, keeping his integrity, and hoping and praying to Hashem to send him a salvation. We must always believe that Hashem could help us in an instant. One second a person could be wondering how he's going to pay for food and the next second be wondering which charitable organization is he going to give ma'aser from the abundance of money that Hashem just sent him. A man, who we'll call Ezra, told me his business has been struggling terribly and it got to a point that he literally ran out of money. He was sitting in his office one day before the holidays, figuring out how he was going to pay his current bills. He had a second business, on the side, that dealt in cellular phones which he hadn't been actively involved in for many, many months. He decided to try that avenue and he randomly chose a contact that he hadn't spoken to in years and attempted to call him and see what he had to offer. When the contact picked up, he asked him if he had any cheap merchandise for sale that he could possibly resell to one of his buyers. The person said that he had a very old model phone that he wished he could get rid of and he told him the name of it. When Ezra heard the style number, his eyes lit up. “How many of them do you have?” he asked. The man replied, “A few thousand.” About eight months prior to this, a buyer called Ezra asking if he could supply him with five thousand of that model phone. At that time, Ezra didn't have any and everyone he called said they were discontinued and they didn't have them either. He asked this wholesaler how much he would charge him per phone. The wholesaler than said, “Well, what do you want to pay?” Ezra ended up getting a very cheap price. He called the buyer that contacted him eight months ago and that buyer said he was still interested. The current wholesaler had other items this buyer was interested in as well and, instantly, Ezra made $30,000 profit from this turnover. He was singing the praises of Hashem to me, saying he can't believe how quickly Hashem sent him a yeshua from literally being down to his last dollar to having $30,000 in an instant. Another man told me, he received notice from the IRS that he was going to be audited for his 2017 taxes. The original date for him to go to their office was set for Rosh Hashanah. He explained it was a Jewish holiday and they rescheduled for right after Sukkot. The man had given a lot of charity that year and they were demanding receipts for all his donations. The man spent a lot of time making phone calls and trying to get those receipts from the organizations that he gave to. There was one yeshiva in Bnei Brak that he made his two largest donations to and he needed two separate receipts for them. He tried many ways to get in touch with the rabbi he gave the donation to but he was unsuccessful. It was the day before his meeting and he was extremely nervous. He spoke to his own rabbi and the rabbi told him to be mitchazek in emunah that all of this is being brought out by Hashem and nobody else has any say with what happens. That afternoon, in his office in Manhattan, a secretary paged him saying a rabbi from Israel was there to see him. He couldn't believe his eyes when he saw it was the rabbi from the yeshiva he was trying to get in touch with to get those receipts from Bnei Brak. He was there once again, asking for the annual donation that he gave him. The man said, “Rabbi, I need your help much more than you need mine now.” The Rabbi was able to get him the two receipts by that night and the next day he had them with him when he went to the meeting. He was thinking the whole time, This is from Hashem. I don't fear anybody except Him . When it was his turn, the representative told him and his accountant, “My goal is to complete your case within six months.” Then he got really nervous. He thought, Six months? But he was mitchazek in emunah again. The representative started asking questions, asking for various receipts for his donations. Amazingly, he was only asked to produce the receipts for the ones he was able to obtain. They skipped over all the donations that he didn't' have a receipt for. Then the representative asked for those two big receipts that he gave to the yeshiva and he handed them to him. The representative said, “Wait a minute.” He took the receipts somewhere, he came back about five minutes later and he said, “We're closing the case right now. You're free to go.” The man's accountant said, “I never saw that in my whole career.” Hashem brought him a yeshua in a wondrous way, delivering the tzedaka receipts all the way from Israel to his office, at the exact moment he needed them. No matter what situation a person finds himself in, he should always hope to Hashem for an instant yeshua .

During the Aseret Yamei Teshuva, we add the mizmor שיר המעלות ממעמקים to our tefilla. Some add the mizmor of לדוד ה' אורי at the end of tefilla. Both of these mizmorim speak about having hope in Hashem's salvation. Specifically at this time of year, when everything is being decided, it is incumbent upon us to pray harder and believe in Hashem's ability to give us even what may seem to be very unlikely. Odds and statistics do not matter to Hashem. Doctor's predictions do not matter to Hashem. Our belief in Hashem and our tefilot are what is going to produce the salvations we are hoping for. I read two stories from Rabbi Binyamin Pruzansky on this topic. The first was about Raizy and Leah, two good friends who worked as social workers for an Israeli agency. They were both assigned to work in an old age home in Bnei Brak called Ateres Zekenim. One of the elderly women in their shared caseload was Chava, she was 83 years old but very young at heart. One day, the two were planning their day off as Chava listened in. They planned to go to Amuka and pray for a shidduch as they had been in shidduchim for quite some time. When Chava heard their plans, she asked if she could come along. She said she was never married and would love to come and pray for a shidduch for herself. The girls almost burst into laughter hearing that request. Whoever heard of an 83 year old praying for a shidduch? Nevertheless, they brought her along. Amazingly, that year Chava became a bride. A man who had lost his wife the year before was having trouble deciding which of his children to live by. They all wanted him and he didn't want to cause a fight so he chose to move into this old age home. While he was there, someone suggested a shidduch with Chava and eventually they got married and moved into their own apartment. Raizy and Leah couldn't believe that of the three of them, Chava was the one answered at Amuka that year. They asked her what her secret was. She explained, "When I asked you to come along and pray in Amuka, I knew you thought I was crazy. I knew I had nobody to depend upon besides Hashem and that is why I prayed to Him with full emunah.” A tefilla with emunah can do wonders. Even an 83 year old woman can find a shidduch. The second story was about a young man and his new wife who were traveling in the summer to visit the kallah's parents who were vacationing in New Hampshire. As they made their way down the I-84, they realized they were very low on gas. It was late at night and all the gas stations that they passed by were closed. They had another 130 miles to go until their destination with only 25 miles left of gas in their tank. They did not want to get stuck on a highway in the middle of nowhere. They knew there was one more possible gas station in the area a few miles away and they drove there hoping for the best. When they pulled up, they saw all the lights were off; it was closed as well. Now they were really stuck, there were no other options available. The young man said to his wife, he was going to pray with all of his heart for Hashem to enable them to pump gas out of a machine in this gas station that had no power. He stepped out of the car with full emunah that it did not matter to Hashem that there was no power. After his tefilla, he stuck his credit card into the machine and placed the nozzle in his gas tank, hoping for a miracle. He pressed down and, amazingly, the gas started to flow. It didn't make sense, the power was off, the screen was blank but the gas was flowing. Hashem can do anything and now more than ever we need to pray with that emunah.

Israel står inför det största hotet någonsin värre än alla våra krig, säger en israelisk stridpilot. Hör hur rättsreformer nu väcker rädsla och hopp. Israels högerregering driver nu igenom lagförändringar steg för steg. Vissa pratar om en juridisk kupp, om att demokratin i Israel vittrar sönder inifrån. Andra applåderar reformerna. Vad är det egentligen som pågår? Konflikts Simon Moser tar med oss på en resa genom landet där striden nu står mellan de som vill bevara den liberala demokratin – och de som vill ge större utrymme för religionen.Vi hälsar på hemma hos Ruven Plevinski i en lägenhet i den ultra-ortodoxa stadsdelen Bnei Brak strax utanför Tel Aviv. Han förklarar varför han tycker att det är hög tid att guds vilja får större utrymme i israelisk politik. Det är inte bara vi som har en gud – för er i väst och för många här i Israel är den liberala demokratin upphöjd till religion, säger han.4 kilometer därifrån, i centrala Tel Aviv, hörs demonstrationstågen dån. Bland aktivisterna finns Mika Almog, barnbarn till Shimon Peres. Hon är rädd att alla israeler nu kommer att få rätta sig efter religiösa extremisters sätt att leva. Allt står på spel, från kvinnors rättigheter till freden, tror hon.Militär: Större hot än Israels alla krigMen det är inte bara studenter och aktivister som höjer sina röster nu. Även militärer protesterar mot regeringens reformförslag. Vi är vana vid hot som kommer utifrån – de kan vi hantera, säger den tidigare stridspiloten Micha Laurens. Den här gången kommer hotet inifrån och det är mycket värre än de hot Israel genomlevt tidigare, menar han.Men i bosättningarna på Västbanken, i Judéen och Samarien, väcker det som nu händer hopp. Det system vi haft tidigare har varit ett problem, Högsta domstolen har inte rättat sig efter folkviljan, säger bosättaren Boaz Haetsni.Hör också Sveriges Radios Mellanöstern korrespondent Cecilia Uddén som följt utvecklingen över tid och nyligen publicerat en dokumentärserie om Israel.Programledare: Anja Sahlberganja.sahlberg@sr.seProducent och reporter: Simon Mosersimon.moser@sr.seTekniker: Tim Kellerman

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 15-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, from Sunday through Thursday. Diaspora affairs correspondent Canaan Lidor and Arab Affairs reporter Gianluca Pacchiani join host Jessica Steinberg for today's podcast. Lidor explains op-ed in Russian newspaper Pravda theorizing that Ukrainian president Vladimir Zelensky is causing Ukrainians to die in the war with Russia as payback for antisemitic pogroms by his non-Jewish compatriots, with brief look back at Ukrainian history as context for the conspiracy theory. Pacchiani discusses interview with Arab criminologist who explains several reasons for the rising wave of Arab violence, including gun availability and changing policies of Israeli government toward Arab towns and politics. Lidor talks about the major women's protest in Bnei Brak that brought thousands of liberal women to the ultra-Orthodox enclave, spurring unexpected discussions between liberal protestors and Haredi women, along with discomfort. Pacchiani speaks about his interview with Waleed Abu Tayeh, the first Arab mayoral candidate for Jerusalem since 1967, and the politician's belief that younger Arab voters are ready to get involved in the democratic process. Discussed articles include: Russian newspaper: Jewish Zelensky sending Ukrainians to die to avenge pogroms Arab local officials are under threat, criminologist warns as violence skyrockets At Bnei Brak women's rights march, angry rhetoric drowns out Haredi-secular dialogue Fighting community's boycott of politics, lawyer runs to be Jerusalem's 1st Arab mayor Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on iTunes, Spotify, PlayerFM, Google Play, or wherever you get your podcasts. IMAGE: Members of the Arab community holding hundreds of fake coffins as they protest against the violence in their community, at Habima Square in Tel Aviv on August 6, 2023 (Photo by Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 15-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, from Sunday through Thursday. Political correspondent Tal Schneider and military correspondent Emanuel Fabian join host Amanda Borschel-Dan on today's episode. Officials from the Civil Administration, backed by police, destroyed or evacuated five buildings in the “Aira Shahar” outpost near the settlement of Kohav Hashahar this morning. Why is this a surprise? On Friday, the chief of the Israeli Air Force, Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar, admitted that the state of the force's readiness was “worsening” in the face of the reservist pilots' refusals to serve, after which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had a pretty explosive reaction. Fabian and Schneider weigh in. A Jewish Iranian man who arrived to Ben-Gurion Airport was deported soon after on Friday. What are the allegations against him? Last night, hundreds of right-wing activists protested in Jerusalem over settler brawler Yehiel Indore's continued remand over the death of a Palestinian man on August 4. Fabian updates us on the case and evidence against him. Schneider speaks about the looming municipal elections, which are arguably Israel's midterm elections. She explains that she's set to take a tour in search of furry friends in Bnei Brak. Discussed articles include: In rare move, security forces evacuate illegal West Bank outpost PM said to have shouted at IDF chiefs: ‘It looks like the army is running the country' Air force head warns damage to military readiness worsening amid overhaul split Jewish Iranian stopped at airport on spying suspicions, sent back to Iran – Shin Bet Hundreds at protest call to free settler suspected of killing Palestinian; 2 arrests Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on iTunes, Spotify, PlayerFM, Google Play, or wherever you get your podcasts. IMAGE: FILE - A rat crosses a Times Square subway platform in New York on January 27, 2015. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Recording Available Via Telephone Dial: (605) 475-4799 | Access ID: 840886# | Reference #: 2398 Rav Chaim Zayid shared that he had been married for seven years without children. The holiday of Pesach was approaching and he knew it was going to be very difficult seeing everyone else at the Seder with children while he and his wife would be the only ones alone. He thought of an idea to help give chizuk to himself as well as all of the childless couples that he knew of. He called a rabbi, Rabbi Tehila, who he had heard in the past and was known to give very powerful chizuk . He asked the Rabbi if he would be able to give a shiur to help childless couples have the proper emunah going into the holiday of Pesach. This request was made just two days before the holiday and Rabbi Tehila said he was very busy. When Rabbi Zayid told him how important the shiur would be for all of those in attendance, Rabbi Tehila agreed. He said he would give the shiur in Bnei Brak at 10:30 pm after he finished doing his bedikat chametz . Rabbi Zayid invited ten couples that he knew of and went to sleep that night excited for the shiur. As he was trying to fall asleep, he remembered another childless couple from a different city who had been married already for twenty years. The next day, he personally went there to invite them. They were not really interested, but he convinced them to come. That night, Rabbi Tehila gave them a two hour class that was so uplifting, they all got so much chizuk . Then, at the end of the class, the Rabbi told them of the famous Chazal, whoever prays for someone else will be answered first, and he requested that they each pair up with a different couple to pray for. Rabbi Zayid was paired up with the couple he invited that morning, the ones who had been married for twenty years without children. And of course, after that, they each prayed very hard for each other. This episode took place thirty years ago. Since then, baruch Hashem, that couple was blessed with two children, both boys. And Rabbi Zayid and his wife were zocheh to have six children. This past year, on the exact same night that that class took place thirty years ago, lel bedikat chametz , Rabbi Zayid's daughter became engaged to that other couple's son. Amazingly, it was almost the exact same time that they had taken upon themselves thirty years earlier to pray for each other to have children. Their prayers not only helped each other, but helped themselves as well. Rabbi Zayid thought he was doing a chesed to help others, but little did he know, he was doing a chesed that was eventually going to help himself and his own daughter. The ways of Hashem are amazing. We have no idea how far reaching our deeds go. From one decision to try to give some people chizuk , many children came into the world and Hashem brought about a string of events that took thirty years to unfold to finally see a tiny glimpse of. Everything we do has ripple effects. Most of the time we don't get to see them, at least now in this world. In the future, Hashem is going to show each person what every one of his deeds accomplished and the person is going to be in awe. There is no such a thing as a small deed. Whatever we do in Torah and mitzvot always goes a very long way.

In a series of recent terror attacks, a Palestinian Arab terrorist rammed his car into pedestrians in Tel Aviv and then began stabbing people on the sidewalk. The attacker was neutralized by a civilian on site, and five injured people were evacuated to the hospital. The day before, a 16-year-old Palestinian stabbed a Haredi Jewish man in Bnei Brak, before being arrested. Thousands of protesters attempted to block access to the Tel Aviv airport, but the police intervened and made dozens of arrests, shutting down the protest. On a surprising note, Hamas reportedly stopped a rocket from being fired at Israel, after sending forces to prevent disturbances along the border.

Recording Available Via Telephone Dial: (605) 475-4799 | Access ID: 840886# | Reference #: 2394 If a person is wronged or insulted, he may feel pain and anguish from it. However, if he utilizes the golden opportunity he is being given, he could soar to the greatest heights and capitalize on all of the potential gains awaiting him. The Gemara tells us about some of the wondrous benefits that come to a person who overlooks when he is wronged, including being forgiven for his sins and given extra years of life. The Zohar HaKadosh brings the story of Rabbi Abba who witnessed another man experience great miracles because he always forgave everyone who wronged him. One of the mefarshim explain the way it works. It is the nature of a person to want to take revenge when he is harmed. His initial reaction is usually one of hate. He never wants to look at the person again and surely not befriend him. By overcoming that nature, the person is acting in what is called למעלה מהטבע – above nature. And the midat hadin of Hashem is only able to affect what is in nature. When a person rises above his nature, he is freed from all dinim . No prosecuting angels can speak negatively of him. And thus, he becomes surrounded by Hashem's chesed . Revenge may be sweet, but overcoming our midot will turn out to be so much sweeter in the long run. I read a story about a woman who asked her daughter-in-law to help a week before Pesach with Pesach cleaning. She basically wanted her to throw away all the old things that she didn't use any more, including clothing, and help her organize so that she could have her house in order to clean properly. When the daughter-in-law started, the mother-in-law went out to run some errands. She tackled the job with gusto. At one point she decided to work on her mother-in-law's bedroom closet. She saw some old clothing that had gone out of style decades before. She knew her mother-in-law never wore any of them so she got rid of them. A few hours later, her mother-in-law returned. She looked around the apartment appreciatively, happy to see the progress that her daughter-in-law had made. While looking around, she noticed three old outfits were removed from her closet. Her heart clenched with trepidation. Inside those three outfits, she had been storing her three most valuable pieces of jewelry. She ran out to the dumpster to see if she could find the bag with the old clothing, but the city of Bnei Brak had already stepped up its garbage collecting efforts in view of the upcoming Yom Tov. The dumpsters had already been emptied. Dejected, she climbed the stairs back to her apartment and with each step she took, her anger grew. A few moments before she opened the door, she said to herself, “Yelling at my daughter-in-law won't bring back my jewelry. All it will do is cause a major fight. I'll wait and maybe in a few weeks I'll mention it when I calm down.” Then, before she entered the house, she made a tefila , “ Ribono Shel Olam , only You know how precious that jewelry was to me. You know how a woman feels about jewelry and how hard it is to restrain myself from saying anything now to my daughter-in-law. I still have three precious jewels at home, three adult children, two boys and a girl, who haven't yet merited to find their match. Please, let me rejoice with those jewels finding their zivug .” She then put on a smile and entered the house as if nothing happened. When her daughter-in-law finished cleaning, she thanked her for her help and they parted on good terms. Within two weeks, she received great suggestions for all three of her children and they all became engaged around the same time. After the third engagement took place, the woman said, “For my first child to get married, I said the entire Tehillim every day for 40 days. For my second, I said Perek Shira for 40 days, and for my third, I said Nishmat every day for 40 days. Now HaKadosh Baruch Hu showed me that with a short tefila and a lot of self-control, in a matter of seconds, one can merit marrying off three children.”

If we would be able to see what we accomplish by doing mitzvot, we would run after them with such excitement and everything in this world would pale in comparison to them. When the Jewish People were preparing to leave Mitzrayim, they were told to go and gather all the wealth of Egypt. At that time, Moshe Rabbenu chose to go and find the aron of Yosef instead, and for that Chazal applied the pasuk חכם לב יקח מצוות to him. While everyone was becoming billionaires, Moshe went to do one mitzvah and he was called the wisest of all of them for that endeavor. Besides for the fact that his reward was eternal while their wealth would only last here in this world, seven days later at Yam Suf, the entire nation was in jeopardy of being killed out by the Mitzrim . When the Sea saw the aron of Yosef, it split and the entire nation was saved. Moshe Rabbenu was thus credited with saving the entire Klal Yisrael because of his pursuit of that one mitzvah. Why did the Sea split for Yosef? Because years before when he was being tested with the wife of Potifar, he ran away from temptation and so now the water was running away from his aron to save the entire Klal Yisrael . Imagine if during that difficult test Yosef would have known that he was going to be the cause of millions of people to be saved, he would have ran away with ease, it wouldn't have even been a test. However, Hashem does not allow a person to see the wondrous effects of what his deeds are going to accomplish, in order for his free will to remain balanced. But we must know that if we did have the eyes to see what was happening when we do mitzvot, we would be so excited to perform every single one of them. I read a story about a man who asked the gabai in his shul to reserve Aliyat Maftir and chazan for Mussaf on one of the upcoming Shabbatot , since that was the week of his mother's yahrtzeit . This man was a very organized person and always made sure to plan things a long time in advance. He was a long time member of that shul and one of its supporters and the gabai told him both of those honors were open and he made a note to reserve them for him. When that Shabbat arrived, the man came into shul filled with anticipation, but there he noticed that a stranger had joined the minyan that day and was in deep conversation with the gabai . The man was curious to hear what the debate was about and, to his shock, he found out that this stranger had asked for Maftir and chazan for Mussaf because he also had a yahrtzeit . Here he was a long time member and supporter of the shul and he asked for these from weeks in advance and now some stranger just strolls in out of the blue and thinks he can take those honors? But then, a small voice whispered inside of him, maybe he should give in? Who knows what merits help the neshama the most. Maybe giving up what was his for someone else would accomplish even more. And so, with great strength, he went over to the gabai and told him to give those honors to the other man. He would take a different aliyah and be chazan for Shacharit on the actual yahrtzeit instead. The gabai said, “ Chas v'shalom , there is a system here, these are yours.” The man reassured the gabai that he was actually happy to do this. And when the gabai saw he was serious, he went over and gave them to the other man. Rabbi Aharon Toisig, a prominent Rav from Bnei Brak, was present in the shul when this episode took place and he related what happened the next day. The congregant came into shul and said his mother came to him in a dream and said to him, “My son, I was given special permission to descend to this world to thank you. The elevation that I experienced when you gave up the Maftir and Mussaf was greater than any other I had ever experienced. I remember well the elevation I merited in past years when you got Aliyat Maftir and was chazan for Mussaf , but those did not come close to what I merited this year when you mustered up the fortitude to give up the honors that were rightfully yours for the sake of peace and to help someone else.” This is just one small example of the great effects of our deeds. The harder they are to perform, the greater they become. We should always run to do mitzvot with the utmost excitement.